According to the latest data released by the Shanghai Aviation Exchange on June 6, the SCFI index rose 167.64 points last week to 2240.35 points, with a weekly increase of 8.08%, maintaining its upward trend for five consecutive weeks. The freight rates of the four major ocean-going routes in Europe and the United States rose, among which the US Eastern Line increased significantly, exceeding more than 10%.
The demand for maritime transportation market has continued to be strong recently. In order to compete for cargo, major shipping companies have added overtime ships and opened new routes. This trend has driven the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) to continue to rise. The latest SCFI index achieved a "five consecutive rises" in 2018, up 167.64 points to 2240.35 points, and a weekly increase of 8.1%. The freight rates of the four major routes were all red, among which the Far East to the United States performed the best, with an increase of 11.14%; South American routes, which are not major routes in the east and west, soared by nearly 42%.
The US line freight rates have fluctuated recently. On June 1, the US-Western freight rate was just raised to US$6,000-6,100 per 40-foot cabinet. Due to the large investment in overtime and additional ships, it quickly fell back to US$5,500 on June 3. This week, the freight rate of the US Southwest route will further drop to $5,100, and the freight rate of the US Northwest route will remain in the range of $5,500-6,000, while the decline of the US East route is relatively small, between $6,500-7,000. With the continuous investment and recovery of US line capacity, industry analysts generally believe that freight rates have reached the peak and fallen.
The shipping company originally planned to significantly increase the US line freight rate again on June 15, with a target increase of US$1,500-2,000, with an intention to push the Southwest and Northwest routes to US$7,500-8,000 and the Eastern route to US$8,000. The Gemini League even filed a one-time increase of up to $4,000 to $10,000. However, due to the rapid adjustment of ships and the addition of several new routes by interbank companies, the market freight rates have fallen rapidly, and It is expected that the price increase plan on June 15 will be difficult to achieve.
In terms of market volume, several freight forwarding companies have evaluated that the scale of China-US tariff rushing shipments during the 90-day suspension period did not meet expectations. Although the volume in June is expected to be higher than in May, it is still below previous estimates. Many shipping companies also pointed out that there are still a large number of shippers who are still waiting and watching.
Looking forward to the future trend of US line freight rates, we mainly face two major variables: First, a new round of talks will be held by China and the United States, and there is still a high degree of uncertainty in US tariff policies; Second, the current freight rates are at a high level, prompting many cargo owners to postpone shipments and wait for a large number of overtime ships and new routes in the United States and West in June and July to take action when the expected freight rates fall.
SCFI Freight Index
Freight from Shanghai to Europe is US$1,667/TEU, up US$80,up 5.04%.
The freight rate from Shanghai to Mediterranean was US$3,302/TEU, up US$241,A 7.87%.
The freight rate from Shanghai to the United States is 5,606 US dollars/FEU, up 434 US dollars a week,At 8.39%.
The freight rate from Shanghai to the United States is $6,939/FEU, up $696 on the weekly basis,Advanced 11.14%.
The freight rate per box of the Persian Gulf route is US$1,929, up US$237,A 14.01%.
South America route (Santos) freight rate is US$3,959 per box, up US$1,162,A 41.54%.
Southeast Asia Line (Singapore) freight rate is US$446 per box, up US$5,Advanced 1.13%.
In terms of the near ocean line, each TEU from the Far East to Southeast Asia has increased by $5 compared with the previous period,up 1.13%; the Far East to Kansai, Japan, and the Far East to Kansai, Japan were the same as the previous period, and the Far East to South Korea fell by $1up.
