According to the latest data released by Shanghai Shipping Exchange, as of July 9th, the demand of China's export container transportation market remained high, and the container spot freight rate continued to rise, setting a new record for the ninth consecutive week. Shanghai's export container comprehensive freight index was 3932.35 points, up 0.7% from the previous period. Strong demand and bottlenecks continue to drive up freight rates.
The latest issue of the Freightos Baltic Index--FBX shows that the spot price between Asia and Northern Europe is US$ 12,203 /FEU, up 7.4% and 600% higher than the same period last year. For Mediterranean ports, FBX rose 2.9% last week to USD 11,684 /FEU, up 511% from a year ago.
Freightos Baltic Index (FBX): Global Container Freight Index
The port at which the shipping company changes its route
In the current challenging market situation, due to the rapid increase in demand and the measures taken by the whole port and supply chain to combat the epidemic, resulting in global port congestion and shipping delay of the whole supply chain, the 2M alliance between Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company will suspend its AE55/Griffin service from Asia to Northern Europe.
Maersk said in its announcement: "The long-term accumulated delays have caused long queues, resulting in more than 7 days between flights departing from Asia."
Therefore, it is decided that MSC La Spezia with 14,000TEU will slip from the 29th week to the 30th week, and the ETA of its arrival in Shanghai will be adjusted to August 1st, 2021.
In addition, Maersk's Dragon service short-term port call will also be changed:
Maersk Semakau, Voyage 129N/132S will skip Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Ningbo and Yantian;
Maersk Seoul, Voyage 130N/133S will skip Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Ningbo and Yantian;
Sealand Michigan, Voyage 131N/134S will skip Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Ningbo and Yantian;
Tasman, Voyage 132N/135S will skip Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Ningbo and Yantian.
Hector Beurotte: temporary changes in the ports of FE2 and FE3 ring lines in northern Europe and Asia
He Beurotte said that the global logistics industry is facing unprecedented pressure, which has led to changes in the global supply chain, including port congestion, and decided to change the anchor of the Far East Ring Road and skip Hong Kong and Jebel Ali.
Far East Loop 2 (FE2) Hong Kong Eastbound omit
Far East Loop 3 (FE3) Jebel Ali Eastbound omit
According to the information, since July 1, shipping companies have made a new round of adjustment to the route quotation. Although some near-ocean routes show a downward trend, most ocean-going routes have price increase expectations. Take the benchmark freight rate from China to the main destination ports in Europe as an example: on July 1, the benchmark freight rate of standard containers was reported at US$ 7,300/carton, which was more than 10% higher than the quotation of US$ 6,600/carton on June 25 of the previous week.
Similarly, the benchmark price of large boxes was quoted at USD 13,600/box, an increase of more than 7% compared with the previous week's quotation.
The decline of port dredging efficiency in some destination ports directly causes freighters to jump to nearby ports and then transfer to destination ports by land transport or short barges, which greatly increases the cost of shipping companies. The backlog of containers in the early stage is in urgent need of port dredging and transshipment, and the superimposed freight orders are still increasing, which makes it difficult to relieve the pressure of some destination ports in the short term and pushes up the international container freight rate in the near future.
According to the data of China's General Administration of Customs, the total export value of China in May 2021 was US$ 263.922 billion, an increase of 23.4% compared with US$ 206.431 billion in the same period last year. With the increase of China's exports, the container throughput has also reached record highs. From January to May this year, the container throughput of China's eight hub ports reached 230 million TEUs, an increase of 17.1% compared with 196 million TEUs in the same period last year. According to industry insiders, with the improvement of epidemic situation in various places, the effective capacity of international containers is recovering, and the congestion of ports will be alleviated in the fourth quarter.
Chen Jinhai, chief analyst of TF Securities transportation industry: In the fourth quarter, our freight demand will enter the off-season, and the volume will decrease relatively. In the fourth quarter, with the popularization of vaccination, it is very likely that the congestion in ports will gradually ease, so the shipping price is likely to start to return to normal.
