British consultant Drewry's World Container Index on Thursday recorded an 1% drop in spot rates for twenty-foot containers on the Shanghai-Rotterdam trade: from $4819 to $4774 per teu. The Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI), which tracks the price level of forty-foot containers from Shanghai to Europe, saw the price per feu fall from $2962 to $2851 in Week 1.

Rippling rates

Singaporean analyst Linerlytica reports that Maersk has revised down its spot rates for shipments in the second half of January, forcing rival shipping lines to do the same. Previous attempts by shipping lines to raise rates in the second half of December had not been warmly received in the market either. The average price of USD 3039 per 40-footer that container shipping lines managed to charge in late November/early December thus seems to have been the high point for now. Since then, rates have rippled somewhat over the holiday period.

Yarn spinning

Still, container shipping lines have nothing to complain about: the rate per teu reported by Drewry on Thursday is 33% higher than the price level a year ago. Container shipping companies were pessimistic then, fearing that they would suffer a lot of losses due to the situation in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels had already started their attacks on cargo ships at the time. In reality, during 2024, container shipping companies were actually reaping the benefits of the problems in the trade and shippers actually proved willing to pay higher prices to still get their containers in safely and on time.

Considerable waiting times

Price barometers saw container rates peak in the summer last year, followed by a dip in the autumn. On the cusp of the festive month, the price per forty-footer suddenly rebounded from $2481 to the aforementioned $3039. This was partly due to congestion on the route; by early December, there was already considerable congestion in both the Chinese mega-ports of Shanghai and Ningbo and in ports in Western Europe. Linerlytica reported on New Year's Eve that that situation only worsened over the Christmas period, with significant waiting times in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and London as well. According to the analyst, this was not only due to high cargo supply, but also unfavourable weather conditions, capacity problems and labour unrest.

Many ships in front of quays

That problem situations often push up container prices is again reflected in fares on the Shanghai-LA and Shanghai-New York routes. These will go up by 7% and 6% this week, according to Drewry. The US market is bracing for a general strike that threatens to break out at US East Coast ports this month.

Although congestion also played out in Europe, Shanghai and Ningbo still took the crown at the end of the year. The total number of container ships waiting at anchor at those ports, 123, greatly exceeded the number of ships handled at the quays: 74 vessels. Rotterdam, meanwhile, by comparison, had 38 container ships at quayside, while 18 were waiting at anchor. Antwerp and Hamburg had similar visitor numbers.

Source: NT