Spot container rates fall 3.9%

Although rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean have tumbled for four straight weeks, rates from Shanghai to the United States inched back up from last week.    Spot container rates as published in the Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, which includes spot rate estimates from Shanghai to 15 regions throughout the world, fell 3.9 percent from last week’s reading of 615.77 to a reading of 591.51.
   Since last week, rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe experienced a 13.9 percent decline, from $545 per TEU to $469 per TEU, while rates from Shanghai to the Mediterranean tumbled 22.4 percent, from $629 per TEU to $488 per TEU.
   Rates on both of these trades have seen significant declines for each of the four past consecutive weeks.
   On a bright note, rates from Shanghai to the United States have inched back up from last week, with rates to the U.S. West Coast rising 0.8 percent, from $1,377 per forty-foot container (FEU) to $1,388 per FEU; and rates to the Mediterranean increasing 1.9 percent, from $2,420 per FEU to $2,466 per FEU.