The lack of containers in the shipping market worsens, and prices may rise before the Spring Festival
The lack of containers in the container shipping market continues to worsen. The shipping company has changed the semi-monthly freight rate to weekly adjustment. It is expected that freight rates will continue to soar before the Spring Festival.
According to data from Shanghai Shipping Exchange, on December 11, the freight rate of the European route increased by 24.2% in a single week, reaching 2948 US dollars/TEU and 5,896 US dollars/FEU; the Mediterranean route increased 28.9% to 3073 US dollars/TEU, per FEU. The price broke through 6000 USD and reached 6164 USD.
A container shipping company pointed out that the freight rates of the European and Mediterranean routes are currently at a record high. Although the freight rates of the European routes have risen later than the American routes, they have risen much faster than the American routes.
On December 11, the freight rate of the western US route was flat at 3948 US dollars/FEU, and the US eastern route was 4804 US dollars/FEU, which rose slightly by 2.2%, which was also approaching a historical high.
Since the fourth quarter, the freight rate of the Far East to Europe line has soared rapidly. In the past two and a half months, it has risen by 152.39%, which is almost three times different from the low of US$725 in late April this year.
Since September, the freight rate of the Far East to Europe route has exceeded 1,000 US dollars. Due to the difficulty of finding a container in the container shipping market, the rapid increase in the volume of Asian exports to Europe, and the congestion of British ports, the European line freight rate has begun to surge and is expected to exceed 3,000 US dollars this week .
Industry insiders predict that the current round of rising freight rates due to port congestion and container shortages will continue until at least the Spring Festival next year.
Due to the increase in the industry concentration in the container shipping market, the total market share of the top ten container shipping companies has exceeded 80%. The sharp rise in freight rates since the third quarter has benefited large shipping companies a lot, and the major shipping companies earned 200 million yuan in quarterly profits. To 500 million US dollars.
Maersk Line, the world’s largest shipping company, has increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from US$7.5-8 billion to US$8.0-8.5 billion this year, and it is estimated to be about 80,000 including 11,000 crew members. Employees give out a Christmas bonus of $1,000 per person.