Shipping sector on course for recovery

CONTAINER freight rates have at last started to recover, but are doing so from a very low base. Spot container freight rates on the major East-West routes reached a 20-month high last week and have risen above the average of the last five years, said Drewry.

The specialist shipping-industry research and consulting services provider said last week that its World Container Index (WCI), based on an average of spot rates on 11 trans-Pacific, Asia-Europe and trans-Atlantic routes, has gone up by 62 per cent since the bankruptcy of Hanjin at the end of last August, when Drewry described the then-prevailing rates as "unsustainable".

Last week, the WCI showed US$1,770 per 40ft container, reflecting increases on individual lanes to US$1,785 for the Rotterdam-New York index (up US$4 in a week), US$2,210 for the Shanghai-Rotterdam index (up US$257) and US$2,106 for the Shanghai-Los Angeles index (up US$545). The last time the WCI composite index exceeded US$1,700 per 40ft container was in March 2015, before the 2015/16 price war.