Container spot rates on the rise on major east-west trades

The Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index rose 22.3 percent since last week, from a reading of 418.47 to a reading of 511.99.    Container spot rate indices the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) and World Container Index (WCI) have all posted comprehensive increases since last week.
   The Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s SCFI surged 22.3 percent since last week, from an overall reading of 418.47 to a reading of 511.99. The SCFI is published each Friday and includes spot rate estimates from Shanghai to 15 regions around the world.
   Rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe skyrocketed 37.2 percent since last week, from $247 per TEU to $339 per TEU.
   The boost resulted from the planned April 1 general rate increase (GRI) on the Asia-Europe trade of approximately $400 per TEU, Richard Ward, a container derivatives specialist at Freight Investor Services said.
   “Initial reports suggest that the latest increase, although initially somewhat successful, has been eroded rapidly and hence only 34 percent of the planned total GRI has been reflected on the SCFI over the past two weeks,” Ward said in a statement.
   In addition, contracted business is experiencing substantially lower levels than last year, according to data from Norway-based ocean procurement software provider Xeneta. Long term contracts on the Asia-Europe trade of three months or more in Xeneta’s confidential crowd-sourced database have declined from a market low of $1,491 per forty-foot container (FEU) in April 2015 to $483 per FEU as of today, a 68 percent year-over-year decline.
   Meanwhile, spot rates from Shanghai to the Mediterranean surged 104.4 percent since last week, from $248 per TEU to $507 per TEU, according to the SCFI.
   Rates from Shanghai to the United States West Coast rose from $748 per FEU last week to $922 per FEU, a 23.3 percent increase; while rates from Shanghai to the U.S. East Coast increased from $1,651 per FEU to $1,787 per FEU, an 8.3 percent increase.
   The WCI, which includes spot rates from 11 east-west container shipping routes, rose from $666.27 per FEU last Thursday to $849.07 per FEU yesterday, a 27.4 percent increase.
   In addition, the NCFI, a composite of prices for 20-foot, 40-foot and high cube containers from Ningbo to Europe, the East Mediterranean, West Mediterranean and Middle East, increased on all four trades since last Friday, according to the Baltic Exchange, which publishes the NCFI on its website each Friday.
   From Ningbo to Europe, the index rose 69.8 percent since last week, from 118.34 to 200.90. On the Ningbo to West Mediterranean trade, the index jumped 109.7 percent, from 131.46 to 275.65, while on the Ningbo to East Mediterranean trade, the index rose 79.1 percent, from 157.26 to 281.64. From Ningbo to the Middle East, the index rose 23.6 percent, from 279.03 to 344.76.