Freight rates continued to drop, hundreds of sailings were cancelled

Containerized spot freight rates continued to fall sharply, with weekly double-digit declines on some trade lanes, notably the eastbound transpacific, which has been declining at an unprecedented rate since late July.

The Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) released by the Ningbo Shipping Exchange closed at 1762.8 points, down 7.8% from the previous week. The freight index of 20 of the 21 routes fell. The latest edition of the Drewry World Container Index (WCI) composite index fell 8% to $4,942/FEU, marking its 29th consecutive weekly decline. The FBX composite freight index fell 4% for the week to $4,653/FEU.

For North American routes, Ningbo Shipping Exchange reported that transportation demand has not improved, and spot market booking prices continued to decline. Among them, the freight rate of the US-Western route has been less than 3000 US dollars / FEU. The freight rate of the US east route decreased by 8.0% compared with the previous week; the freight rate of the US west route decreased by 9.8% compared with the previous week, and has dropped by 64% compared with the beginning of the year.

According to the Drewry World Container Index, the spot freight rate from Shanghai to Los Angeles fell by 11% from the previous week, or US$530, to US$4,252/FEU; the freight rate from Shanghai to New York fell by 5% from the previous week to US$8,477/FEU. FEU, down 47% year over year.

According to the FBX freight index data, the freight rate of the Asia-West America route also fell sharply, down 9% from the previous week to US$3,942/FEU; the freight rate of the US-East route decreased by 2% to US$8,546/FEU. FBX chief analyst Judah Levine said freight volumes and a shift in congestion to eastern U.S. ports have supported rates, so there has been no significant decline.

As for the European route, the market is in a state of excess supply of capacity, and the freight rate of the route maintains a downward trend. According to NCFI, the freight index of European routes decreased by 6.3% compared with last week; the freight index of eastern route decreased by 1.6% compared with last week; the freight index of western route decreased by 6.2% compared with last week. The Drewry WCI Index reported that spot rates from Shanghai to Rotterdam fell 10%, or $764, to $6,671/FEU; Shanghai-Genoa fell 7% to $7,353/FEU.

There was no peak season in the third quarter, demand slowed down, and there was no sign of recovery. It is expected that there will not be a peak freight traffic before the National Day Golden Week. There is sufficient space, but the reliability of the sailing schedule continues to be affected by a large number of air flights, delayed voyages and port jumps. Congestion at ports in Europe, particularly Hamburg and Rotterdam, has reached critical levels, causing further delays for ships and delays returning to Asia.

On major routes such as the Trans-Pacific, Asia to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, 122 of the 750 scheduled sailings were cancelled between Weeks 38 and 42, a cancellation rate of 16%, according to Drewry's latest count. Of these, 68% of blank sailings will occur on trans-Pacific eastbound routes and 24% on Asia to Europe and Mediterranean routes.

During this period, the three major alliances cancelled a total of 101 sailings, including 40 cancellations by the 2M alliance, 33.5 cancellations by THE alliance and 27.5 cancellations by the Ocean alliance.

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