Sea freight prices fell for 14 consecutive weeks, what is the reason behind

The rising sea freight prices are falling continuously.

Year to date, the World Container Index (wci) compiled by shipping consultancy Drewry has fallen by more than 16%. The latest data shows that the wci composite index fell below $8,000 per 40-foot container (feu) last week, down 0.9% month-on-month and back to the freight rate level in June last year.

Routes with steeper declines

Why are ocean freight prices falling?

Let's take a look at the routes that have fallen significantly.

The three routes from Shanghai to Rotterdam, New York, and Los Angeles have dropped significantly

Compared with the previous week, the freight rate of the Shanghai-Rotterdam route decreased by USD 214/feu to USD 10,364/feu, the freight rate of the Shanghai-New York route decreased by USD 124/feu to USD 11,229/feu, and the freight rate of the Shanghai-Los Angeles route decreased by USD 24/ feu, reaching $8758/feu.

Since the beginning of the year, the two main routes from Shanghai to Los Angeles and Shanghai to New York have fallen by 17% and 16% respectively.

According to Drewry's calculations, among the eight shipping routes that affect the world container freight index, the impact weight of these three shipping routes from Shanghai accounts for 0.575, which is close to 60%. From April 7 to April 21, the freight rates of the five routes other than these three routes were relatively stable, and there was basically no major change.

Affected by the previous shortage of capacity, the deployment of capacity continues to grow. However, when the supply of capacity continues to rise, the demand for capacity has changed.
Cargo volumes and overseas demand both fall

In addition to this, the speed of transshipment, unloading and shipments at Shanghai Port began to slow down.

At the same time, due to the rising inflation in the United States and Europe, people's price pressure is greater. This has suppressed overseas consumer demand to a certain extent.

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Post time: Jun-08-2022