China shipping container rates jump to 2-year high

China’s ocean freight rates rose 12.6% to 3,044.77 on the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index last week, marking the first time that the indicator broke the 3,000-point level since August 2022, reports the South China Morning Post. The rates are surging as exporters front-load shipments for the holiday season battered by worries about US tariff increases and prolonged Red Sea disruptions.
The growth momentum is set to continue as more exporters book slots on vessels bound for the US and Europe to execute orders, freight forwarders said.
“Shippers could be facing months of very elevated rates and increased delays as higher demand combines with restricted capacity,” Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, a global freight booking platform, said in a research note. “But the duration and scale of these disruptions and price spikes could be less severe than those unprecedented impacts seen during the pandemic.”
Source: China Economic Review