Eng
The spot rates for shipping containers from Asia to the key consumer markets continue to decline. Over the 13-17 calendar weeks, the spot rates for Europe dropped by approximately 7%, while the rates for North America were declining faster: the subindex for the Pacific coast ports decreased by 11%, and by 17% for the Atlantic coast.
The Drewry WCI spot index value for the Shanghai–Northern European ports route dropped below the psychological threshold of $3,000 per FEU, Shanghai–Los Angeles – below $3,500 per FEU, Shanghai–New York – below $4,500 per FEU.
Nonetheless, the rates remain well above early December levels, prior to the spike triggered by the threat of Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. The difference is nearly 2.5 fold for the routes to Europe and nearly 75% for the routes to the US ports.
It is most likely that the rates will continue to decrease as the carriers make no apparent effort to limit supply and thus keep the rates at the current levels. According to Sea-Intelligence, the reduction in capacity through cancellations of flights is record low.