Drewry Benchmarking Club Contract Rate News

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.