Since the beginning of this year, the situation in the Red Sea has continued to be tense, forcing almost all container ships to abandon the Suez Canal route and instead sail around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Although this adjustment has alleviated the initial backlog and congestion crisis to a certain extent, it corresponds to a longer sailing time, which is about two weeks longer than before, and also leaves a large number of ships and containers floating at sea.
The Shanghai Export Container Comprehensive Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange showed that the SCFI on May 10 was 2305.79 points, an increase of 18.8% from a week ago. Compared with a month ago, the increase reached 31.2%. It also exceeded the 2239.61 points in mid-January this year. reached a new high for the year.
In terms of main routes, the market freight rates (sea freight and sea freight surcharges) of Shanghai Port's exports to Europe, the Mediterranean, the West and the East of the United States have all increased by about 20% compared with a week ago.
Also rising sharply is the World Containerized Index (WCI) released by Drewry. On May 9, WCI closed at US$3,159/FEU, an increase of 16% from a week ago and 122% higher than the average freight rate in 2019 before the epidemic.
Among them, the Shanghai-Rotterdam freight rate was 3,709 US dollars/FEU, an increase of 20% from a week ago; the Shanghai-Los Angeles freight rate was 3,988 US dollars/FEU, an increase of 18%; the Shanghai-Genoa freight rate was 4,295 US dollars/FEU, and the Shanghai-New York freight rate was 5,089 USD/FEU both rose 16%.
With the Red Sea situation and the geopolitical situation in the Middle East still unresolved, freight rates are expected to remain high. Drewry predicts， that freight rates will rise further in mid-May.
