Box Rates Plummet on Key Asia-Europe Route

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday November 23, 2015

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index Friday plummeted to $295 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container for transporting containers from Asia to Northern Europe.

This $114 week-on-week drop comes on the heels of spot freight rates on the route dropping 39.3 percent in the previous week.

In the last three weeks, container spot freight rates on the Asia to Northern Europe route have fallen 70 percent, according to reports.

The rates are widely believed to be so low as to be loss-making for the box carriers.

Container freight rates for the Asia to Mediterranean, U.S. West Coast, and to U.S. East Coast ports were also all down.

Earlier this year, it was reported that container freight rates on the Asia-to-Europe trade route dropped below shipping companies' fuel costs for the first time in two years.

Box markets are not the only ones suffering, with a number of sectors facing a tough end to the year.

Last week Ship & Bunker reported that the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) fell to an all time low of 504.