Spot container rates drop 10.9%

Rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe tumbled 24.4 percent since last Thursday.    The Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), which includes spot rate estimates from Shanghai to a total of 15 regions around the world, fell 10.9 percent from last Thursday’s reading of 836.96 to a reading of 745.91.
   Rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe fell 24.4 percent since last Thursday, from $1,232 per TEU to $932 per TEU.
   The trade experienced the second largest decline in dollar terms ever recorded on the SCFI. The decline was only marginally below the largest drop ever recorded on the trade of $314, which was back in November 2015, Richard Ward, a container derivatives broker at Freight Investor services said.
   Such large declines are a worrying trend for carriers in the run-up to the Chinese New Year. For the first quarter of the last three years, the Asia-Europe trade has experienced the highest rate at and prior to Chinese New Year before falling afterwards, Ward explained.
   “If the aforementioned trend holds true between January and March then rates for the whole of Q1 2016 are likely to be lower than the same period of 2015,” Ward said.
   In addition, the Shanghai to Mediterranean has tumbled since last Thursday from $1,257 per TEU to $1,022 per TEU, an 18.7 percent decline.
   However, CMA CGM of France and Hapag-Lloyd of Germany will increase rates from Asia to Europe and the Mediterranean by $500 per TEU Jan. 15. Maersk Line will also increase rates from Asia to the Mediterranean by $500 per TEU Jan. 15.
   However, such increases, are unlikely to have a long lasting impact on rates, said Ward.
   Rates from Shanghai to the U.S. West Coast fell 1.3 percent since last Thursday, from $1,518 per forty-foot container (FEU) to $1,498 per FEU, while rates to the U.S. East Coast fell 0.5 percent, from $2,555 per FEU to $2,542 per FEU.