TRANSPACIFIC freight rates - in both directions - have more than doubled year on year, says Freightos, the online international freight market place that publishes the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) in conjunction with the Baltic Exchange.
The reason, widely known throughout the international shipping community, is the Sino-American trade war as shippers rush to import cargo before tariffs bite from January.
Freightos says the FBX shows freight rates from China to the West Coast have increased by 130 per cent and China to the east coast by 126 per cent over where they were a year earlier, reports American Shipper.
"Containerships on the Asia to East Coast North America trading lane are currently full to brimming, providing carriers with a nice bounty in the form of greatly inflated spot market freight rates, which are currently more than twice the amount they were this time last year," said Drewry in the latest edition of its Container Insight Weekly.
"Carriers have done a far better job of managing capacity on the Asia-ECNA (East Coast North America) route than for other East-West trades, rewarded with much higher freight rates. We suspect that they will adopt a wait and see approach with regards to the January tariffs and will look to protect the gains by removing some tonnage if necessary."
2018/11/30 11:43:00