Although the new round of new crown pneumonia in Europe represented by the British mutant virus has generally eased, and the congestion of British ports is also showing signs of easing, it will take some time for the European transportation system to fully recover.
At the same time, the goods hoarded before the Chinese New Year have basically been shipped out, and the demand for transportation after the holiday is still recovering. The overall market volume is insufficient, and some voyages have surplus space. Liner companies cut prices to buy goods.
Under the combined influence of the above-mentioned market factors, the freight rates of Asia-Europe routes after the Spring Festival have been declining.
According to the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Aviation Exchange, on March 12, the freight rate (sea and ocean surcharges) for exports from Shanghai to the European basic port market was 3,712 US dollars/TEU, which was higher than that on March 5. Compared with 3966 USD/TEU, it is down 6.4%. Compared with the USD 4,047/TEU on February 26, it was down by 8.3%. Compared with the 4281 USD/TEU on February 19, the drop reached 13.3%.
This is also the rate of the Asia-Europe route, which has declined for three consecutive weeks.
The situation of the Mediterranean route is slightly better than that of the European route. On March 12, the freight rate (sea freight and ocean freight surcharges) for exports from Shanghai to the Mediterranean basic port market was 4,020 USD/TEU, a decrease of 5.4% compared with 4,252 USD/TEU on February 19.
The Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) released by the Ningbo Shipping Exchange also showed a similar trend.
From March 5th to 12th, the NCFI European route freight index was 2871.1 points, a decrease of 6.2% from the previous week. Compared with the 3192.2 points on February 20-26, a drop of 10%; compared with the 3323.4 points on February 13-19, a drop of 13.6%.
In the same period, the freight index of the NCFI East-West route was 2354.2 points, and the freight index of the NCFI West-South route was 3007.1 points, a decrease of 7.4% and 9.2% respectively from February 13-19.
Entering 2021, the freight rate of Asia-Europe route has experienced an astonishing price increase of 25.8% overnight, and then gradually dropped.
Previously, industry consulting agency Sea-Intelligence had predicted that in 2021, the uncertainty caused by the epidemic would still be very large, and the historically high freight rates would fall.
Lin Shulai, an analyst at Yihailan, analyzed that the market freight rate after the Spring Festival depends on two factors, the operating strategy of the shipping company and the development of the epidemic. It is expected that after the first quarter of 2021, the market is expected to return to normal.
