Shipping sector on course for recovery
Box rates on the rise due largely to consolidation, with Hanjin's failure among the biggest contributors
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.
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