Will the space be full by the end of June? Freight rates have soared! One cabin is hard to find!
 May 17, 2024|View:144

Tensions in the Red Sea have continued since the beginning of the year, forcing shipping companies to give up the Red Sea-Suez route and rerun it around the Cape of Good Hope, which means longer voyages. It is understood that the detour time is about two weeks longer than before.


The movement of container ships around the Cape of Good Hope has strained capacity on large shipping networks, affecting rates even on routes that do not pass through the Suez Canal, Freightos said.


The Shanghai Export Container Composite Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange showed that SCFI was 2.305.79 points on May 10. up 18.8 percent from a week ago and 31.2 percent from a month ago. It surpassed the high of 2.239.61 points in mid-January and hit a new high for the year.


Under the joint influence of factors such as the rising situation in the Red Sea, port congestion, strong demand for shippers' shipments, the increase of peak season surcharges by shipping companies, and the risk of strikes in many places in Europe and the United States, the freight rate in the container shipping market has risen sharply recently, and the shortage of containers in ports is serious, and "one cabin is difficult to find" appears again!


An industry source said that some customers urgently want to get 700 to 800 container shipping space to South America to load LCD televisions and other electronic products. Strong catch-up demand has sent prices for 40-foot containers soaring past $10.000.


According to industry sources, the shipping space to South America is full until the end of June, and customers need 700 ~ 800 containers. Even if they are willing to pay a higher price, there is no shipping space, and the price is expected to rise further next week.


According to the analysis, May and June are the peak season for the export of fruits and other agricultural products from South America to Asia, and the shipment from China to South America is generally relatively dull. But customers rushed to ship in May, which should be a sign of low inventory levels of consumer electronics, and also have something to do with Argentina's political and economic stability.


Many freight forwarders are facing the pressure brought by skyrocketing freight rates and tight shipping space. A freight forwarder said: the freight rate is changing every day, really do not know how to quote! For shippers, the impact is also intuitive. Recently completed production of goods had to be delayed delivery, backlog is serious.