Rates continue to spiral upwards

Shortly before the next general rate increase (GRI) by the liner shipping companies, market rates have continued to rise sharply. Last Friday, the Shanghai Index SCFI jumped by 16 per cent to over 2,206 points. The index rates for routes between the Far East and North America in particular rose surprisingly strongly. This increase illustrates how the domino effects of the crisis in the Red Sea are also affecting trades that do not necessarily pass through the region. The reasons for this are the increasing equipment (container) shortages in Asia and the lack of ship capacity due to the additional tonnage requirements for the most affected liner services between Asia and Europe.

In addition to the diversions around the Cape of Good Hope for container shipments between Asia and Europe, cancellations of port calls to shorten the round trip times of ships are also having an impact on supply chains. Loading ports in northern China such as Dalian are increasingly being cancelled from schedules. Accordingly, shippers are forced to transport their goods from northern China by truck, rail or barge to southern ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo, which adds considerably to the transit times.

Source: DVZ