Asia-Europe Rates Further Contract
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, September 28, 2015
Major container shipping rates plummeted again this week, with declines on the trunk Shanghai-Europe routes falling at record amounts, says Shangahi Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).
A eport in ASC says that the SCFI for Far East to North Europe dropped by a staggering 31%, losing US $143 per teu to finish the week at US $313 per teu. The rate to the Med also finished at US $313 per teu, one the first times that the southern gateways have commanded a similar freight rate to Europe’s northern ports.
The Far East to Med route decline represented a drop of 30%, or US $135 per teu. The decline represents a potential loss for shipping lines operating ultra large container ships of US $2.4-million on a single voyage.
The 2M alliance, run by Maersk and MSC, has cancelled next week’s AE6 sailing, the AE1 sailing in week 41 due to depart Shanghai on 7 October and the AE5 and AE2 sailings in week 42, departing Shanghai on the 12 and 13 October respectively.
Similarly, the O3 Alliance has cancelled the FAL23 and FAL12 in week 41 and the FAL8 the following week. The G6 Alliance has also cancelled its Loop 6 next week, Loop 7 the week after, Loop 4 in week 42 and Loop 5 in week 43.
Trans-Pacific and Asia-US East Coast trades also fell this week, but not to the same extent as those to Europe, with the Shanghai-US west coast leg down 6.4% at US $1,291 per feu while the Shanghai-US east coast route dropped 4.5% to US $2,318 per teu.