The container shipping market experienced its biggest one-week jump in months as freight rates from Asia to the US posted upward trends.
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index jumped 5.1% over the past seven days to 979 points on Friday. That marks the benchmark index’s largest weekly increase in both percentage and nominal terms since April, Jefferies analyst Omar Nokta said.
He attributed the significant gain to higher freight rates on the routes that sail from Asia to both the US East Coast and West Coast.
He noted that some liner operators are getting rates that are above $1,500 per feu for trips to the West Coast and beyond $2,500 per feu for sailings to the East Coast.
“We understand liners are testing the potential of driving US West Coast rates closer to $2,000 per feu and US East Coast rates to $2,750 per feu in the near-term,” he wrote in a note on Friday.
Average freight rates for trips from Asia to the East Coast remained just below $2,380 per day all week long, while those for trips from Asia to the West Coast slipped 1.1% to $1,376 per feu, according to the Baltic Exchange’s Freightos Baltic Index.
Rates to the West Coast have risen as unionised west coast dockworkers in the US and Canada reached tentative labour agreements with employers in the past month.
“While US-bound rates have shown signs of improvement, rates into the European market remain on a softening trend with the latest rates hovering at their 2023 lows of $1,300 per feu,” Nokta said.
Average freight rates from Asia to northern Europe slipped 0.8% over the past week to $1,286 per feu on Friday, the index showed.
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