Freight rates continued to drop, 76 sailings were cancelled

The Drewry World Container Index (WCI) has fallen for 21 consecutive weeks. In the latest week, the WCI composite index edged down 0.7% from the previous week to $6,998.8/FEU, down 21% year-on-year. The Baltic Sea Freight Index (FBX) Global Composite was at $6,414/FEU, down 1% from the previous week.

According to the analysis, German port strikes and congestion at other major container ports in northern Europe are slowing the decline in spot rates. According to the latest data of WCI, FBX and XSI spot freight index, the spot freight rate of Asia-Europe routes fluctuated slightly. The WCI index showed that the freight rate from Shanghai to Rotterdam was US$9,182/FEU, down 1% from the previous week; the freight rate from Asia to North Europe in the FBX index was US$10,393/FEU, down 0.7%.

Although shipping lines have cancelled some sailings, they have had to start touting discounts on the market to attract bookings. The Ningbo Shipping Exchange reported that the demand on the European route was insufficient, the overall capacity was surplus, and the market freight rate continued to decline.

Congestion at Nordic ports, however, is draining capacity due to longer wait times for berths and slower berthing speeds, which could tip the supply-demand balance in favor of shipping lines in the coming weeks.

On Thursday, 12,000 dockworkers at the German ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven went on strike for 48 hours, suspending port operations and exacerbating long-standing congestion at Nordic container ports. Before the strike, there were reports that ships had to wait up to two weeks in the port of Hamburg to berth.

According to the latest sailing cancellation tracking report released by Drewry, between weeks 29 and 33, a total of 758 scheduled sailings on major routes such as transpacific, transatlantic, Asia to northern Europe and the Mediterranean, 76 sailings were cancelled, and 71 voyages were cancelled. % of the cancelled sailings will be on eastbound transpacific routes, mainly to the west of the US. Among them, the three major shipping alliances cancelled a total of 61 sailings. 2M Alliance cancelled 20 sailings, THE Alliance cancelled 23.5 sailings, and Ocean Alliance cancelled 17.5 sailings.

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