Freight prices have dropped significantly! All four core routes are in decline!
Date：2024-07-26 14:24:00 View：
The long-term surge in container shipping market costs ushered in a major turning point in mid-July, showing an overall correction trend.
On July 19, the latest Shanghai export container comprehensive freight index showed that it had fallen to 3542.44 points, a sharp decrease of 3.6% from the previous week.
What is particularly striking is that the four major ocean routes connecting the European and American markets all suffered significant declines of more than 1%.
Image source: Shanghai Shipping Exchange (infringement and deletion)
Specifically, the spot market booking prices for European routes showed a mild correction.
On that day, the freight rate (including ocean freight and surcharges) from Shanghai Port to European basic ports dropped to US$5,000/TEU, a slight decrease of 1.0% from the previous period. The Mediterranean route followed closely behind, and the freight rate also fell slightly to US$5,361/TEU, a decrease of 1.2%.
At the same time, the market dynamics of North American routes cannot be ignored. As supply and demand tend to balance, market freight rates continue to adjust.
Specifically, the freight rate (including ocean freight and surcharges) from Shanghai Port to the US West Coast has been adjusted to US$7,124/FEU, a significant decrease of 6.9% from the previous week; while the freight rate from Shanghai Port to the US East Coast Basic Port has also declined. , dropped to 9,751 US dollars/FEU, a decrease of 1.3%.
Industry analysts pointed out that the core driving force for this freight rate correction is the significant increase in shipping capacity. Since early July, North American routes have continued to receive the injection of new shipping capacity, including the addition of overtime ships and new shipping companies, which has effectively alleviated the tight situation of shipping capacity, thereby prompting freight rates to gradually return to rationality. Based on this, it is expected that freight rates on North American routes will continue to fall in late July.
The high freight rates on European and American routes have attracted the emergence of a large number of overtime ships and new route services. The supply of market capacity has increased significantly, which has had a significant impact on the freight rate performance in the past two weeks.
According to the latest data from Alphaliner, as of July 19, 2024, the total number of container ships operating worldwide has reached 7,022, with a total shipping capacity of approximately 30.266 million TEU.
Among them, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Maersk Line and CMA CGM continue to rank among the top three in terms of transportation capacity. MSC ranks the top among them with a transportation capacity of more than 6 million TEU and a market share of up to 20%.
Latest capacity ranking TOP20 Picture source ALphaliner (intrusion and deletion)
It is worth noting that although July to August is traditionally the peak season for shipments, this year's peak season performance was significantly advanced, making it difficult to reproduce significant growth in shipments from August to September. However, some people believe that although the current sea freight rates have peaked and begun to correct, the magnitude of the correction is expected to be relatively limited.