The freight rate continues to fall! Freight rates fall short of expectations after significant suspensions during the Spring Festival.

Drewry announced the latest World Container Freight Index (WCI), down 2%, while Ningbo Shipping Exchange announced the NCFI freight index, down 1%. There was a lot of capacity and class control reduction before and after the Spring Festival. However, the relative stability of freight rates may continue to hold.

Drewry WCI composite index of US$2046 per FCL, which is 80% lower than the peak of US$10,377 in September 2021 and 24% lower than the average of US$2,694 over the past year. However, it was still 46% higher than the average of US$1,420 before the epidemic outbreak in 2019. The freight of $1,420 was 46% higher.

The Shanghai-Los Angeles freight rate increased by 1 percent to?$2,072 per FCL.

Shanghai-Rotterdam freight rates dropped 4 percent to $1,741 per FCL

The Shanghai-New York freight rate declined by 6 percent, or $191, to $3,241.

The Shanghai-Genoa freight rate remained at?$2,778 per FCL?for the period.

According to Drewry, freight rates will continue to decline shortly. NCFI increased on ten routes out of 21 and decreased on 11 routes. Six ports along the "Maritime Silk Road" saw their tariff indices rise, while ten ports saw their tariff indices fall. The South America West route market is more volatile during this period. Liner companies have arranged for a temporary service suspension after the holiday, and route tariffs have increased slightly. South America West has a freight index of 379.4 points, an increase of 8.7% from last week.

In the European container shipping market, many upstream and downstream enterprises still need to complete their Spring Festival holidays, which keeps overall booking prices stable. The European shipping line price index was 658.3 points, down 1.1% from last week; the East shipping line price index was 1043.8 points, up 1.4% from the previous week; and the West shipping line price index was 1190.2 points, down 0.4% from last week.

The prices of shipping lines on North American routes were stable overall, with no change in market supply and demand. The tariff index of the U.S. East route was 891.7 points, down 1.6% compared with last week; the tariff index of the U.S. West route was 768.2 points, down 1.3% compared to the previous week.

Middle East routes:?Cargo liners were mostly hoarded before the festival, and spot market booking prices fell slightly. The index for Middle East routes was 667.7 points, down 3.1% compared with last week.