INDEX 33% LOWER

After the spot rates, the charter prices in container shipping also seem to have entered a free fall. This can be deduced from a report by the German ship broker Harper Petersen. Its Harpex index, which tracks price formation in the charter market for container ships, has fallen by no less than 17% in the past week. Compared to the highest level ever in April this year, the weekly index is now 33% lower at 3095 points. That is the lowest level in more than a year.

The index shot through the 3000 point mark in July last and climbed to 4586 points in March this year. Until the end of July, the index remained above 4400 points, but after that it started to fall sharply to the current level. The index is compiled on the basis of reported charter contracts with terms of six to twelve months for various vessel sizes.

The current level is still above the average of 2,942 over the past two years. In June 2020, when the first effects of the corona pandemic became noticeable, the index was still at a low of 412 points.

The decrease in charter rates is similar to that of spot rates in container shipping. Last week it became clear that the leading Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) had fallen nearly 10% for two consecutive weeks. Since the beginning of this year, this index has more than halved from above 5,000 points to below 2,500 points.