With the end of the Christmas shipping season and weak market volume, container shipping rates have once again declined.
According to the latest data released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange on December 5th, the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) fell 5.5 points to 1397.63 points last week, a weekly decline of 0.39%. Among the four major ocean routes, except for the Mediterranean route where freight rates have increased, the freight rates of the other three major ocean routes have all decreased.
Last week, the FEU freight rate for the Far East to West Coast route dropped by $82 to $1550, a weekly decrease of 5.02%; The FEU freight rate from the Far East to the East Coast of the United States fell by $113 to $2315, a weekly decrease of 4.65%; The price per TEU for the Far East to Europe route fell by $4 to $1400, a weekly decrease of 0.28%; The price per TEU for the Far East to Mediterranean route has increased by $68 to $2300 compared to the previous week, with a weekly increase of 3.05%.
On the near ocean route, the price per TEU from the Far East to Kansai, Japan remained unchanged from the previous week, at $312; The price per TEU from the Far East to the Kanto region of Japan remained unchanged from the previous week, at $321; The price per TEU from the Far East to Southeast Asia has increased by $3 compared to the previous week, reaching $543; The price per TEU from the Far East to South Korea remained unchanged from the previous week, at $143.
Industry insiders say that the volume of cargo on US shipping lines is not high, while container ship capacity continues to expand, exerting dual pressure on freight rates. At the end of November, the FEU freight rate hit a low of $1300 per FEU, which is the cost price for many shipping companies. In order to prevent freight rates from bottoming out, the shipping company called for a price increase of about $600 in the first week of December. However, due to insufficient cargo volume, the price first increased and then decreased. Currently, the freight rates for the West Coast Line are about $1500 and the East Coast Line are about $2200.
Although the market is in the off-season, the consolidation companies have not significantly increased the number of blank flights. It is reported that member companies of large shipping alliances are currently focusing on seizing market share. On the table, the freight rate for the US West Coast route is about $1500/FEU. However, in order to seize large customers or maintain cabin utilization, they have also offered a special price of about $1350, and the freight war is about to erupt.
At present, the demand for consolidated transportation is still hovering at a low level, and the overall loading rate in China is only around 70%. The US freight rates are expected to bottom out and rebound, and it is estimated that they may have to wait until late December or before the Spring Festival in January next year for Asian shipments and European and American stocking. At that time, there will be a chance for the volume and freight rates to rebound. On the other hand, although the offshore line has entered the off-season, some people are optimistic that as long as the market demand for the near offshore line is good enough, it can still alleviate the off-season pressure on the European and American lines to a certain extent.
According to Clarkson data, the global container ship fleet officially surpassed 7000 ships to 7007 ships in early November, with a total capacity of 32.7 million containers, an increase of over 1000 ships in 37 months, and a growth rate of 16.67% in the past 3 years, setting a record for the fastest growth rate in history. At the same time, in early September this year, the global container ship backlog exceeded 10 million TEUs, and there are still 991 new ships planned to be delivered by the end of 2028. The container ship fleet is expected to exceed 8000 in the next three years.