BACK TO NORMAL?

Spot rates in container liner shipping are now falling even faster, especially between Asia and Europe. The average Shanghai-Rotterdam rate is down 15% compared to a week ago in consultant Drewry’s World Container Index, which was updated on Thursday.

It means that a forty-foot container, which cost $3,684 a week earlier, now costs just $3,126. At the beginning of this year, the transport of a forty-foot boat from Shanghai to Rotterdam cost more than $ 10,000 more: $ 13,658.

With the current rate at which spot rates are falling, they are now rapidly approaching pre-coronavirus levels. In January 2020, the spot rate for a 40ft container Shanghai-Rotterdam was approximately USD 1,800.

Another leading index, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), paints a similar picture. The Europe rate for this drops today (Friday) from 1763 to 1478 dollars per twenty-foot container. The shipping companies could charge 4252 dollars for such a container at the beginning of September and 7777 dollars at the beginning of this year.

On the Shanghai-Los Angeles route, the average spot rate according to the Drewry index fell less hard, by 4%, but the average spot rate was already lower there, at $ 2,262 per forty footer. Fares fell on most routes, but nowhere as sharply as on the Asia-Europe route. On average, according to Drewry, the decline worldwide was 9%.