Drewry and Cleartrade Exchange unveil World Container Index

Press Release May 5, 2011

Joint venture partners will provide assessments for 11 East-West trade routes to stimulate container freight swaps market

London, May 5, 2011. Drewry and Cleartrade Exchange have today unveiled the World Container Index assessed by Drewry, a global index which can be used by physical and derivative market participants to manage freight risk.

The index will report individual market prices on major East-West container shipping routes. Initially prices for 11 individual routes and a composite index will be reported each week. These will cover trade in both directions between Asia, North America and Europe.

The index data will be generated by Drewry’s team of industry analysts from multiple market sources including carriers and intermediaries and published by WCI Marketing Services Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture with Cleartrade Exchange, the leading electronic marketplace for OTC freight and commodity swaps.

Drewry and Cleartrade Exchange believe that the new market price indices fill an important gap in the market, offering wide geographical scope as well as the inclusion of ’backhaul’ routes from an independent trusted research house.

Richard Baker, Managing Director of Cleartrade, said:
“This is a big step forward for the container freight derivatives market, providing a robust set of indices on trade routes that reflect substantial physical volumes. We estimate the physical volume in 2010 on these 11 routes was 37m twenty-foot container moves. The potential for hedging and trading that freight risk is obvious.”

Philip Damas, Director - Liner Shipping and Supply Chains, Drewry said:
“The World Container Index assessed by Drewry brings a new level of depth and integrity to an emerging derivatives market that has huge potential for a number of participants along the trade chain. The extreme market volatility in the last three years and the shortcomings of the annual contract system has highlighted the need for greater predictability of container shipping rates and the need for hedging.”

Brian Nixon, President of the Container Freight Derivatives Association, said:
“The CFDA welcomes the launch of the WCI assessed by Drewry and applaud this initiative to bring liquidity to the container freight market. We are on the record as saying the association supports the development of new indices which are fair, trustworthy and transparent, conditions the WCI amply satisfies.”

The World Container Index assessed by Drewrywill be available to all users of the container freight market including shippers, carriers, forwarders, banks, brokers and clearing houses. The index will be published weekly on Thursdays.