News
The market for container exports from China steadily recovered after the nation’s Labor Day holidays on May 1-5. The composite Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), an index for spot rates for container exports from Shanghai that do not include terminal handling charges (THCs), stood at 4,147.83 points in Week 19, only going down a minute 0.4% from the previous week and remaining on a downward trend for the 17th week in a row, the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) has announced. By route, however, the SCFIs improved on those to the west coast of North America and the Middle East Gulf and only declined mildly on those to other regions.
Europe’s economic recovery is confronted with various risk factors, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is leading to increase geopolitical risks. As transport demand remained steady, nevertheless, spot rates for containers destined to the region only decreased slightly. They just fell 1.6% to $5,860 per TEU but stayed on the decline for 16 consecutive weeks. Those for shipments bound for the Mediterranean, meanwhile, slid 1.3% to $6,601 per TEU. Spot rates sank 0.7% to $10,560 per FEU on the trade route to the east coast of North America but improved 0.2% to $7,900 per FEU on that to the west coast.
