When the lines on the Asia-North Europe trade slapped on general rate increases (GRIs) on August 1, Asia-Europe spot prices more than doubled and lines boasted it would stick.
But the GRIs failed to hold for more than a few days, and within a couple of weeks rates had again collapsed.
The Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) for last week revealed that rates on the trade had fallen over 42% since the GRI. On the Asia-Mediterranean trade they dropped 41%.
The transpacific trades didn’t suffer at all badly. A peak season surcharge had stuck. And, in the first week of August, rates on the Asia-US East Coast trade only dropped 4%. To the US West Coast it was even less, easing down only 2.1%.
There was a happy turnaround for shipping lines in the second week of the month, with rates to the West Coast jumping back up 11.5%, and by 5.8% to the East Coast.
Main trade GRIs fail to hold
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