Ocean freight rates on the up again this week

06.04.2021

Prices rise across eight major East-West trades assessed by Drewry

Ocean freight spot rates rose yet again this week from their already record-high levels, across the eight major East-West trades assessed by Drewry.

According to its World Container Index, spot prices to ship a 40ft container from Shanghai to Rotterdam increased another 3% or $288 on last week to $10,462 — a rise of 518% on their level a year ago and those on Shanghai-Genoa rose 2% or $238 to $9,900/FEU (+418% year over year).

On the transpacific, spot rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles increased 4% or $210 to $5,952/FEU while prices from Shanghai to New York surged $412 (+6%) to come in at $7,559 for a 40ft box.

As for the transatlantic trade, the head haul westbound leg rose just 1% to an average of US$3,720/FEU on Rotterdam-New York.

Outbound from the US, rates on Los Angeles-Shanghai were up 5% to stand at $779/FEU, while prices on Rotterdam-Shanghai increased by 5% also to $1,629/FEU.

Drewry’s composite World Container Index, an average freight rate assessments on eight major East-West trades, increased 3.3% or $207 to $6,463.78 per 40ft container.

For the year-to-date, the average composite index of the WCI, assessed by Drewry, is $5,299 per 40ft container, which is $3,382 higher than the five-year average of $1,916/FEU.

Drewry expects rates «to remain on the higher side due to port congestion and equipment unavailability.»

Analytics on topic
Report
03.18.2022
Report
03.18.2022
Rail container transportation in the Eurasian space in 2021

What results did Eurasian transportation show in a difficult 2021?

Report
05.27.2020
Report
05.27.2020
Review of the current state of sea and air cargo transportation market: crisis recovery scenario

The coronavirus outbreak exposed the fragility of global supply chains that move goods between countries. Due to the volatility of the logistic market, carriers are facing new risks and the need to promptly respond to changes in order to manage them. The global cargo transportation market is experiencing significant difficulties caused by abrupt decrease of the transport infrastructure throughput due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.