Spot container rates soar 98.7% to the Mediterranean

Rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean skyrocketed, while rates to the United States inched up slightly from last week.    Spot container rates as measured by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) rose from last week’s reading of 484.14 to a reading of 535.22. 
   The overall SCFI includes spot rate estimates from Shanghai to a total of 15 regions around the world.
   Rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe rose 87.8 percent since last week, from $295 per TEU to $554 per TEU, as carriers forced through the Dec. 1 general rate increase (GRI), Richard Ward, a container derivatives broker at Freight Investor Services said.
   “However due to an implementation date that sits between two weekly index publications it’s a little too early to tell how much of the total GRI has come into effect, which won’t be truly known until next Friday,” Ward said in a statement.
   In addition, the idle containership fleet has gone past 1.2 million TEUs, reaching a five-year high, according to industry analyst Alphaliner. This could also be having a positive effect on rates as supply is being taken out of the market.
   Rates from Shanghai to the Mediterranean increased 98.7 percent since last week, from $315 per TEU to $626 per TEU.
   Since last Friday, rates from Shanghai to the United States West Coast inched up 1.5 percent from $922 per forty-foot container (FEU) to $936 per FEU, while rates from Shanghai to the United States East Coast rose 0.7 percent from $1,688 per FEU to $1,699 per FEU.