The price increase failed, and the freight rate of multiple routes continued to fall!

The shipping company has reduced shipping space by suspending flights and reducing flights, and has raised freight rates four times since July. However, due to the weak demand in the global economic downturn, the market recovery has fallen short of expectations.

The Drewry World Container Freight Index (WCI) announced on August 24 fell by 3.5%, and the Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) on August 25 fell by 1.67%..

The latest SCFI freight index shows that, except for the US-West route, which rose slightly by 0.15%, the freight rates per 40-foot container of the main routes of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the US-East decreased by 5.87%, 3%, and 1.86% respectively.

According to the industry, the current freight rate of the US line is profitable. In the case of no significant recovery in demand and a record new capacity, shipping companies will continue to reduce shifts and draw space to slow down the decline in freight rates.

Freight forwarding practitioners said that the cargo volume of the US line in August is comparable to that of July, and customers with large volumes have room to negotiate prices. The shipping company’s freight rate defense line is to hold on to US,000 in the West and US,000 in the East; as for the European line, it has fallen for four consecutive weeks. , economic downturn, sluggish cargo volume, and most of the shipping companies operate 20,000 TEU large ships. At present, large ships have been replaced by small and medium-sized ships to reduce the supply of transportation capacity.

The overall loading rate of the European route was insufficient, and most liner companies continued to reduce prices to attract cargo, and the market freight rate continued to fall. For the North American route, the overall market demand for shipments at the end of the month was limited, and some liner companies slightly lowered their freight rates to try to attract cargo.

The August edition of MSI's Horizon report predicts that rising rates on major trade lanes will "lose steam relatively quickly", citing the gradual influx of newbuild ultra-large container ships into ring operations as the main reason.

“With cargo volumes set to decline, shipping lines will have to significantly increase scrapping, blank sailings and possibly lay-ups in the next two to three quarters if they are to keep freight rates at sustainable levels,” the report said.

Some freight forwarders also pointed out that this week, the actual freight rate in the market has dropped by about 100-150 US dollars per 40-foot container. The freight rate per large box on the line is around US00-1350.

Although the shipping company still has a price increase plan on September 1, it is estimated that the increase will not be easy, but the decline is also limited.