The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) for Week 18 improved 4.2% from the previous week to 852.27 points, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE).
On the trade route to Europe, the Covid-19 pandemic was having a severe impact on corporate production activities. Excluding terminal handling charges (THCs), spot rates from Shanghai went down 1.9% to US$739/TEU, while for the Mediterranean waned 0.5% to US$840/TEU.
On the route to North America, shipping lines took actions to reduce tonnage supply, keeping a balance between supply and demand. Spot freight rates to shipments destined to the east and west coasts, as such, grew 5.8% to US$2,773/FEU and 15.3% to US$1,724/FEU, respectively.
The market remained on a downward trend on the route to the Middle East Gulf, urging freight rates to fall 2% to US$637/TEU. At a time when corporate production was on the way to recovery, in contrast, those to Australia and New Zealand hiked 1.9% to US$947/TEU.
On the trade to South America, some operators cutdown tonnage supply, helping the supply-demand balance improve. As a consequence, freight rates to the region surged 18.5% to US$,1,050/TEU.
Demand was stable for moving containers to Japan. Freight rates remained unchanged from a week earlier to both Kansai and Kanto at US$234/TEU and US$243/TEU, respectively.
