Container spot freight rates on most of the main shipping trades saw another week of decline, although the rate was markedly less than the previous week.
Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI), which records quoted prices, showed single-digit drops on the four largest east-west trades, with the China-North Europe leg down 2.5% week on week, to $2,612 per 40ft, on the headhaul route, and the China-Mediterranean route down 4.5%, to $4,390 per 40ft.
In comparison, Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI), which records prices paid over the last seven days, saw its Shanghai-Rotterdam leg decline 2% week on week to end, at $2,463 per 40ft, while the Shanghai-Genoa leg was down 1%, to $3,268 per 40ft.
Despite some levelling off from the previous steepness of the declines, Freightos head analyst Judah Levin noted that Asai-North Europe rates are now 14% lower than at the lowest point in 2024, while Asia-Mediterranean rates are 10% under their 2024 spot rate floor.
“The post-LNY demand slump may be more pronounced than usual on these lanes as shippers stocked up ahead of the holiday to account for Red Sea diversion-driven lead time increases,” he noted earlier this week.
In contrast, the WCI recorded much steeper declines on the Asia-North America routes, with the Shanghai-Los Angeles leg down 9% week on week, to end at $2,658 per 40ft, while the Shanghai-New York route fell 7% on the previous week, to $3,774 per 40ft.
The SCFI recorded a 5% week on week decline on its China-US west coast leg, and 4% on the China-US east coast leg.
Usually when faced with a continued erosion of pricing, carriers would be looking to curtail capacity, however lines are currently in the middle of phasing-in the new alliance networks, which make capacity withdrawals such as blank sailings relatively ineffective at this point.
Should the spot rate declines continue past the point where the new networks have been fully rolled out, which is expected to be completed by the end of April, and providing there has been no resumption of Suez Canal transits, a much greater use of blank sailings is to be expected.
These could also take place on the transatlantic trade, which has been largely immune to spot rate declines for over a month, but this week also saw a downward trend.
The WCI’s Rotterdam-New York leg shed 2% this week, to finish at $2,316 per 40ft.
