The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) succumbed to a three year low, depreciating 2.3% this week to end at US$1,006, just a tad above the three digits quote.
Its counterpart on the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE), the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) witnessed a stronger 4.4% fall for the week touching US$1,110, its lowest level since November, 2020. Surprisingly the CCFI was driven downwards more by the relatively larger dips in trade lane figures between China-Japan, China-South America and China-Africa all of which reported a dip in the range of 8.3-10.3%.
The Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) too had taken a short dip to end the week at US$2,034, on Thursday, February, 2, 2023. While the rates from Europe to South America East Coast saw a correction for about 3% this week on the Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI), there weren’t any other major weekly loses seen across the indices.
It was reported earlier in the week that the Charter-Long term rates reported by Xeneta took a double digit dip of over 13% for December 2022, losing for the fifth straight month in the process.
With the Chinese New year culminating this Sunday, it would be interesting to see if the rates have a short-term bottom or not. There have been some interesting signals in the tale with the China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index coming in at 50.1 for January, up from 47 in December.
With new ports and newer equipment in ports along with case-based service & port additions on the anvil, across various geographies, the globe is trying to shift and cater for medium to long-term supply chain demands, to counter future disruptions too.
Gautham Krishnan is a logistics professional with Fluor Corporation, in the area of project logistics and analytics, and has worked in the areas of Project Management, Business Development and Government Consulting.
