Container spot rates continued to climb on the Asia-Europe trades this week on the back of strong demand and extremely tight capacity, in terms of both vessel and equipment availability. Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) published a rate of $1,508 per teu for Shanghai-North Europe, an increase of $262 per teu...
What a major shipping line called the “black swan” container shortage has hit intra-Asia trades as carriers prioritise transpacific profits. With some 30m teu carried each year, the intra-Asia tradelane is the largest in the world, comprising around 100 port pairs. Costs have traditionally been kept in check, there’s been less carrier consolidation...
Industry experts have expressed “grave concerns” at the UK government’s “unnecessary insistence” on implementation of the new Customs Declaration System (CDS). Chair of the Association of Freight Software Suppliers Steve Bartlett and director general of the UK Association for International Trade Des Hiscock told the EU goods sub-committee CDS was “not ready”...
Container rates across main and secondary tradelanes are exploding, with no hope of any easing of the pain for ocean freight shippers in the coming weeks, or possibly even months. Today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) comprehensive index value has doubled since May, with several tradelane components recording gains in spot rates...
Shippers around the world face huge supply chain challenges from port congestion and an acute shortage of containers. And one carrier source The Loadstar spoke to today said the problems “will get worse”. “There are so many pinch points building now and they will only get worse before the holiday season and may...
Shippers from Asia to the UK container hub port of Felixstowe are being quoted rates of over $5,000 per 40ft, which is five times higher than the current spot rate for North Europe. A forwarding source told The Loadstar today that some carriers were refusing to accept bookings to Felixstowe “at any...
With the benefit of hindsight, ocean carriers would not have been anywhere near as bullish with their scrubber strategies, it was claimed this week. Japanese ocean carrier ONE has just 5% of its fleet fitted with the exhaust gas cleaning systems, compared with HMM’s 80%, Evergreen’s 57% and MSC’s 43%. Alphaliner said the...
Container shipping spot rates on the main deepsea east-west trades this week maintained the historic highs seen in recent weeks. Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index demonstrates that carriers continue to hold the upper hand as the annual round of contract negotiations on the Asia-Europe trades looms. The SCFI’s Shanghai-North Europe route ticked up...
Major forwarders may abandon Maersk over concerns that the line’s new “integrated” business and “aggressive” strategy creates conflict of interests, and that it wants to cut forwarders from its business. DB Schenker confirmed to The Loadstar that it had lost key account status with the shipping line, but said it had already switched...
Today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) shows a further 10.65-point gain in its comprehensive index to 1,448.87 – 71% higher than at the end of May. The huge increase over the past five months, in the midst of the pandemic, has been driven by substantial gains in container spot rates across both...
