Container shipping rates soar, as market instability lingers

There are indications that the volatility in container shipping freight rates will remain very high as long as over-capacity and carrier industry instability continues.

Already, reports showed that rates from Shanghai to Lagos increased by 11 per cent from May rate to $1,320 per teu in July.

Drewry’s Global Freight Rate Index (GRI), showed that a weighted average of spot container freight rates across all major routes except intra-Asia, swung back in July by 13 per cent to reach $1,403 per 40ft box. The global spot rate index had dropped to an all-time low of $1,113 per 40ft container in April.

The Asia-West Africa and Asia-South Africa routes are registring signs of reversal with the start of the peak season.

On the Asia-South Africa route, rates increased by $10 per feu last month and the GRI for August 1 lifted rates by $400 during the first two weeks.

The 26 per cent jump in the global rate index between April and July follows the recent tendency of ocean carriers to increase rates and to discontinue some unprofitable services on a number of routes.

“A major reversal from rock bottom rates was registered on the Asia- South America trade, after carriers reduced the number of weekly services to three since May, causing a 243 per cent increase in rates during March-July.

“At least on four of the 100+ routes monitored through the Container Freight Rate Insight platform, rates have bottomed out. In some cases, higher volumes generated by the peak season in Asia have contributed to the upwards correction of rates,” Drewry said.

However, a number of major routes are still priced at rates which are 20-50 per cent lower than the average of the last three years. These include the routes from both the US and Europe to Asia, the eastbound Transatlantic route and some intra-Asia routes.

On those five routes, rates generally remain in the range of $500-1,000 per 40ft container, including Terminal Handling Charges at both ends. This means that the base ocean rate is often only 4100-500 per 40ft container.

“The bottoming out trend simply confirms that the earlier, extremely low rates were not sustainable, and that some carriers have changed their practices to reduce losses.

But it does not mean that this is the beginning of a long upwards trend of rate increases, because chronic over-capacity has still not been addressed fully by the container shipping sector,” Drewry added.