Container Freight Rates Rise for 7 Consecutive Weeks... Record Highs Again in Europe and the Americas

A rock crane is loading container boxes onto a ship at Busan New Port Pier 4.

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Container ship freight rates have risen for seven consecutive weeks, setting a new all-time high once again. In particular, freight rates on major domestic export routes such as the US East Coast, Europe, and the Mediterranean have broken their previous records.

According to the shipping industry on the 26th, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), which aggregates freight rates for 15 container shipping routes, rose by 37.04 points from the previous week to 3785.4. This is the highest level since the index began in October 2009, and the average SCFI for the second quarter of this year (3259.15) was 3.6 times higher than the same period last year (897.39).

The freight rate for the US West Coast route, a major route for domestic exporters, remained unchanged at $4,716 per 1FEU (12-meter container) compared to the previous week, but the US East Coast route freight rate rose by $30 per 1FEU to $8,944, marking a record high for 12 consecutive weeks.

Freight rates on the Asia-Europe route increased by $128 per 1TEU (6-meter container) to $6,479, rising by a remarkable $592 within a month. During the same period, the Mediterranean route freight rate rose by $122 per 1TEU to $6,514, surpassing $6,500 for the first time ever and setting a new record.

The Asia-South America route also recorded an all-time high with freight rates rising by $83 per 1TEU to $9,380 compared to the previous week, and the Australia-New Zealand route freight rate increased by $198 to $2,593. On the other hand, the Asia-Middle East route, which surpassed $3,000 per 1TEU for the first time last week, fell by $5 to $2,997 compared to the previous week.

The industry pointed out that the prolonged COVID-19 situation, combined with congestion at North American West Coast ports such as Long Beach and Los Angeles (LA), as well as the partial closure of Yantian Port in Shenzhen, China, has intensified the shortage of shipping capacity, sustaining the upward trend in container ship freight rates.

Experts predict that the freight rate increase will continue through the third quarter of this year, with the SCFI freight index surpassing 4,000 and setting a new all-time high.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.