Freight rates have fallen for 12 weeks! Shanghai sealed control and global port congestion impact the container transportation market

With the severe epidemic situation in Shanghai and the continuous impact of global port congestion on the container shipping market, the SCFI index fell for 12 consecutive times, hitting a new low since August last year.

On April 8, the Shanghai Airlines Exchange announced that the latest Shanghai export container freight index (SCFI) fell to 4263.66 points, a weekly decline of 1.96%, setting a record of 12 consecutive weeks of decline. The freight rates of the European line and the US west line both fell, and the European line reached a new low in 10 months, but the US east line stopped falling and rebounded.

Among them, the freight rate per feu on the Far East West line fell by US $56 to US $7860, or 0.7%, for five consecutive weeks and hit a new low this year; The freight rate from the Far East to the east of the United States rebounded by US $186 to US $10581, or 1.8%; The freight rate per TEU from the Far East to Europe fell to US $6157 for 11 consecutive days, the lowest since June last year.

Industry insiders pointed out that recently, manufacturers began to transfer goods to the east of the United States in order to prevent the strike of dock workers in the west of the United States. However, the shipping space in the east of the United States was originally less than that in the west of the United States, and the problem of port congestion was not solved. Therefore, the east of the United States pushed up the freight rate.

In terms of the overall freight rate trend, it is expected that the freight rate will still fall slightly in mid April. The freight rate originally estimated to rise in the second half of April may not start to rise until early May. The main reason is that the container transportation company has begun to draw ships on the western line of the United States, and the shipment tide can be expected after the epidemic situation in Shanghai and other places is unsealed, which will push up the freight rate.

Despite the continuous decline of SCFI index, the freight rate is actually still at an all-time high. However, people in the industry also believe that the freight rate may be difficult to reach a new high. This year, the freight rate is unlikely to increase significantly as last year, but it will not decline too much, but will remain high and volatile.

On the other hand, although the current shortage of shipping space has eased, the slightly loose shipping space and the easing of port congestion will help to improve the ship turnover rate. Even if the freight rate drops slightly, as long as the cargo volume remains at a high level and the freight rate remains at a relatively high level, the performance of container transportation companies this year is not necessarily lower than that of last year.

According to one, about 10% of the world's container fleet cannot move due to port congestion in China and other parts of the world.

Jeremy Nixon, executive director of one, said at the marine money conference in Singapore on April 5 that container ships were stuck waiting in congested areas and consumed a lot of fuel. If the bottleneck could be solved, the service could be on time again.

According to USDA data, there were 5587 ships in the global container fleet last year, carrying 24.7 million containers. According to Bloomberg estimates, this means that about 500 ships are lining up to enter the port for loading and unloading.

COVID-19 has entered the third year, and the global supply chain is still affected by tight manpower and outbreak. Industry insiders said that although the congestion of ports on the West Bank of the United States has finally eased after several months of delay, the blockade of cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen has led to an increasing number of waiting ships outside China, which may worsen the delay of cargo transportation and push up freight rates in the coming months.