World News
Alphaliner: Repeated Rate Increases From Carriers "Hard To Justify"
Analyst agency Alphaliner has criticised the large and repeated rate increases made by container lines along the East Asia-North Europe route as being "hard to justify," ShippingWatch reports.
According to the report, Some carriers, including Maersk Line, have more than doubled their rates for April 1,2015, making it the fifth time that companies have attempted to raise rates this year.
So far, the four previous attempts have failed, though rate increase announcements are expected to occur every other month throughout 2015, according to SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.
"In which industry can you find sellers repeatedly announcing price increases of over 100 percent of the prevailing market price, while providing no reasonable justification for their actions?" Alphaliner said.
Carriers have been hit with depressed freight rates due to less demand and excess capacity in the industry, with Alphaliner adding that carriers are in part contributing to the problem by adding further capacity through larger containerships.
The problem of unified rate increases has also been under scrutiny for some time by the European Commission, (EC) who opened up an investigation back in November 2013.
However, Maersk Line confirmed that there had been no new developments to the investigation so far.
At the time, the EC stated that it was concerned with how companies were "signalling" future rate increases through standard company releases, rates which were then quickly adopted by other carrier lines as well.
Key Bunker Prices More
| VLSFO | MGO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $/mt | +/- | $/mt | +/- | |
| Singapore | 641.00 | 4.00 | 762.00 | 5.50 |
| Rotterdam | 599.00 | 1.00 | 751.00 | 0.50 |
| Houston | 629.50 | 2.00 | 802.50 | 6.50 |
| Fujairah | 647.50 | 2.00 | 883.50 | 5.50 |
| Global 20 Ports Average | 661.50 | 3.50 | 859.00 | 5.00 |
| Global 4 Ports Average | 629.50 | 1.00 | 799.50 | 1.50 |
| Global Average Bunker Price | 719.00 | 3.50 | 915.00 | 7.50 |
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