The World Container Index's composite index, an average of spot freight rates on 11 global east-west routes connecting Asia, Europe and the US, reached a record low of US$701 per FEU this week.

This was the lowest reading since the World Container Index (WCI) starting tracking weekly transatlantic, transpacific and Asia-Europe rates in June 2011, said London's Drewry Maritime Research.

Also today, the index rate assessments for a Shanghai-Rotterdam FEU was US$354 while the Shanghai-Genoa rate fell to US$341 per FEU. The WCI Shanghai-Los Angeles rate of $878 per FEU was marginally higher than the record low for that route.

"The World Container Index's composite index is now 60 percent lower than the average of the past five years and has decreased by 62 percent in the past year," said WCI director Richard Heath.

Philip Damas, director at Drewry, which jointly owns WCI alongside Cleartrade Exchange, said: "Rate reductions are spreading across all routes, as the shipping market continues to soften.

"This is good news for shippers' cost budgets, as the latest average index value of $701 per 40ft represents an expense of less than 10 cents per kilometre and makes products competitive even in remote markets."

Due to overcapacity on the Asia–Europe trade CMA CGM is shifting six 18,000-TEUers to the transpacific trade, the first time such ultra-large vessels have been deployed into the US west coast.

Source: shippingazette.com