Shipping’s Price War: Spot Rates Slide as Carriers Battle for Cargo

By Gavin van Marle (The Loadstar) –

Container spot freight rates on the major east-west liner trades experienced another week of decline, as slack demand continued to depress pricing.

The Drewry’s World Container Index’s (WCI) composite global rate showed a week-on-week decline of 10%, to $2,795 per 40ft, dragging overall rates down to a level last seen in April last year, shortly before an early peak season on the Asia-Europe trades led to an upsurge in spot rates.

It is still way too early in the year to determine whether we will see a repeat – current demand levels appear depressed, but the sentiment at the same point last year was very similar.

Nonetheless, it was a bad week for transpacific carriers, which saw spot rates to both the US east and east coasts decline by double-digit amounts …