Business news :Freight rates on the Far-East Lines - Europe down 50% in eight weeks. The decline could continue in the coming weeks.

According to the specialized website Alpha Liner, the SCFI index (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, which measures freight rates for shipping container from Shanghai, said a dive on the road Far East - Europe. At $ 765 at September 27, it is half of 1501 dollars recorded in early August. Liner Alpha believes that it could drop to $ 500 in the coming weeks.

According to Alpha Liner, this is the result of joining the fleet of very large container ships from 13 000 to 18 000 TEU in the last month, which more than offset reductions in services occurred earlier in the year. Further capacity reductions envisaged will in turn offset by lower activity resulting from the Golden Week (paid from 1 October). Successive attempts to lift freight rates on the initiative of the owners would therefore have no effect.

Most other destinations, they also affected. In one week, the lines on the Mediterranean, the west and east coasts of the United States and South America were respectively recorded falls of 107, 54, 42 and 10 dollars per TEU. In total the SCFI, with an average offset of the top 15 trades from Shanghai fell by 990 to $ 936 per TEU, since it stood at 1000 in October 2009.

Source lemarin.fr