Asia-Europe freight rates continue to fall
Following up on our recent post about sea freight rates fluctuations, the quoted predictions from SeaIntel proved to be correct. The supply-demand imbalance continues and cutting capacity does not help to avoid rate erosion. The latest Shanghai Containerised Freight Index shows that only during the last week freight rates on Asia-North Europe routes fell by 26.7% to $469 per teu and by 32.1% to $449 per teu on Asia-Mediterranean routes. In the beginning of the month GRIs were successfully implemented on these routes, but rates have now plummeted by 57.7% and 59.9% respectively
At the same time, on the Transpacific routes a sharp increase in rates at the beginning of the season did not last for more than a week. Freight rates to the US east coast from Asia plunged by 9.9%, or $313, to $2,846 per teu this week, and those to the US west coast dropped by 7.8%, or $134, to $1,585 per teu.
Those are all good news for shippers but container lines are now trying to address supply-demand crisis by suspending their services or entirely withdrawing the routes. We believe that a qualified advice should be sought in these circumstances to minimize possible impact on supply chain.