Last week’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), which collates quotes for the forthcoming week, saw declines across all its trade routes, bar a 10% week-on-week increase on China-Mexico.
The SCFI’s China-North Europe and China-Mediterranean dropped 16% and 5% on the previous week, respectively, while the rates to the U.S. west and east coasts both fell 5% week on week.
“Post-Chinese New Year though to the end of February there are going to be some very attractive spot rates out of Asia – this is a market run purely by supply and demand,” explained Zencargo VP of global ocean freight Anne Sophie Fribourg.
The main lever for carriers to halt the slide in rates is to curtail capacity, and Xeneta head analyst Peter Sand warned recently that the number of blanked sailings was likely to significantly increase.
“Carriers will not sit on their hands while freight rates collapse. They will do everything they can to keep rates elevated, and have got much smarter at capacity management in recent years,” said Sand.
“Will it be enough? Hardly,” he added.
Read more in an article from The Loadstar.
