Drewry Benchmarking Club News

Drewry  has welcome one of the world’s leading automotive and energy companies to its exclusive, online ocean freight cost comparison service, Benchmarking Club.With this latest addition, Drewry Benchmarking Club now counts more than 10% of its members in the S&P 100 and Nasdaq 100.Launched in 2014, Drewry Benchmarking Club is a closed user group designed exclusively for shippers and is one of a number of ocean freight procurement support services from Drewry’s logistics consultancy arm, Drewry Supply Chain Advisors.These services give logistics and procurement teams within global manufacturers and retailers the visibility they need…

Responding to the concerns and needs of Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs) ahead of the IMO 2020 global emission regulation, global shipping consultancy Drewry announces the addition of a new BAF formula and fuel cost benchmarking service to complement its existing range of ocean freight procurement support services.In cooperation with both shipper members of the Drewry Benchmarking Club and other parties, Drewry has developed an IMO low-sulphur rule, “Cost Impact Calculator” based on robust market data, benchmarked BAF charges and fuel cost differentials between loops and carriers.“With the compliance window to the IMO’s low-sulphur rule change in January 2020 rapidly closing…

There is considerable unease among global shippers/BCOs (Beneficial Cargo Owners) and freight forwarders ahead of the IMO’s 2020 global emissions regulations, due to come into force on 1 January 2020, according to a survey conducted by global shipping consultancy Drewry.Particular uncertainty and concern was expressed by respondents in both the survey and follow-up interviews about carriers’ methods of fuel cost recovery with more than half of all respondents (56%) stating that they did not consider their service providers’ existing approaches as either fair or transparent.Further to this, 4 in every 5 of the shippers/BCOs participating in the survey stated that they had yet to receive clarity from their providers as to how the widely anticipated future fuel cost increases…

Contract freight rates paid by Beneficial Cargo Owners to move their products by container have increased for a 4th consecutive quarter, according to actual contract rate data from the Drewry Benchmarking Club. Average contract rates on two major container trade routes - from Asia to North Europe and North America – have increased by another 4% between the second and the third quarter of this year. This means that the latest Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Index has increased by 39% in the year to the third quarter, based on $2 billion of ocean freight spending. “The container shipping market has seen a sustained, radical reversal away from the previous, long deflationary trend,” said Philip Damas, Head of Drewry’s logistics practice.

International transport and logistics executives are increasingly benchmarking their companies’ costs and supplier terms in ocean transport contracts, according to data gathered by Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. In the past 6 months, the ocean transport spend under carrier contracts benchmarked by Beneficial Cargo Owners via the Drewry Benchmarking Club global initiative increased by 50%, to $2.2 billion; the number of benchmarked routes rose by 81% and the volume of benchmarked dry container teu jumped by 67%. FMCG companies and retailers are generally ahead of industrial manufacturers when it comes to using benchmarking to negotiate contracts.

Spot container freight rates on the major East-West routes reached a 20-month high this week and have risen above the average of the last 5 years. The latest weekly reading is $1,770/40ft container for the composite index, reflecting increases on individual lanes to $1,785 for the Rotterdam-New York index (up $4 this week), $2,210 for the Shanghai-Rotterdam index (up $257 this week) and $2,106 for the Shanghai-Los Angeles index (up $545 this week). On the back of 1 January GRIs, the World Container Index between Shanghai and Rotterdam rose by 13% to reach $2,210 this week. Drewry expects the volume upsurge on account of an early Chinese New Year to support further increases next week.

Spot container freight rates on the major East-West routes reached a 20-month high this week and have risen above the average of the last 5 years, said a report by Drewry. The latest weekly reading is $1,770/40ft container for the composite index, reflecting increases on individual lanes to $1,785 for the Rotterdam-New York index (up $4 this week), $2,210 for the Shanghai-Rotterdam index (up $257 this week) and $2,106 for the Shanghai-Los Angeles index (up $545 this week). On the back of 1 January GRIs, the World Container Index between Shanghai and Rotterdam rose by 13% to reach $2,210 this week. Drewry expects the volume upsurge on account of an early Chinese New Year to support further increases next week.

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West trade routes saw a reversal of trend in 4Q 2016, according to Drewry’s Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of 50 multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates. The Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Rate Index, based on average Transpacific and Asia-Europe contract freight rate data provided confidentially by shippers, increased by 3% in the latest quarter, after having fallen for more than 6 consecutive quarters. “2017 will be the first year of increasing contract rates since 2010 and this could come as a shock to some logistics managers who had got used to deflationary international transportation costs year after year…

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West trade routes fell by another 18% between February and May, according to Drewry’s Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates. The Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Rate Index, based on average Transpacific and Asia-Europe contract freight rate data provided confidentially by shippers, has now declined by 29% in the year to May, as shippers secured, first, big cuts in Asia-Europe annual contract rates and, second, considerable reductions in their transpacific rates effective from May.

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West trade routes fell by another 18% between February and May, according to Drewry’s Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates. The Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Rate Index, based on average Transpacific and Asia-Europe contract freight rate data provided confidentially by shippers, has now declined by 29% in the year to May, as shippers secured, first, big cuts in Asia-Europe annual contract rates and, second, considerable reductions in their transpacific rates effective from May.

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West trade routes saw another reduction in the last quarter of 2015, according to Drewry’s Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates. The Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Rate Index, based on Trans Pacific and Asia-Europe contract freight rate data provided confidentially by shippers, declined by 5 percent between August and November last year, another fall on top of the sharp decline we saw during the third quarter of 2015. The reduction in contract rates was driven by a combination of lower fuel costs, excess vessel capacity and intensive competition between shipping lines.

Ocean freight rates for cargo moving under contracts on the major East-West routes have seen a sharp reduction since the beginning of the year, according to Drewry’s Benchmarking Club, a closed user group of multinational retailers and manufacturers who closely monitor their contract freight rates. The Drewry Benchmarking Club contract rate index, based on Trans Pacific and Asia-Europe contract freight rate data provided confidentially by shippers, declined by 7% between May and August this year, the steepest fall since the Benchmarking Club was established in March 2014. The fall in contract rates has been driven by a combination of lower fuel costs, excess vessel capacity and intensive competition between shipping lines.