Ocean freight is at two-year lows. US West freight is 2900? First, the Shipping Division acknowledged shippers' price-cut requests.

In recent months, the freight forwarding circle has exploded. From Yantian to the Port of Long Beach, Hige cube containers cost 2850 U.S. dollars to receive the offer of 3000 U.S. dollars.

While last year's U.S. prices topped 30,000 dollars, west route freight prices have fallen from last year's high of 80 to 90 percent.

There was a 13-week decline in freight rates to increase the pace of the fall.

Still, the world's four major container tariff indices fell sharply in the latest issue.

As of last week, the Shanghai Container Freight Index (SCFI) was at 2562.12 points, down 285.5 points from last week, a weekly decline of 10.0%. The index was down 43.9% from the same period the previous year.

The Deloitte World Containerized Freight Index (WCI) has declined for 28 consecutive weeks, with the latest period down 5% to $5,378.68 per FEU.

The Baltic Freight Index (FBX) global composite index fell 8% week-on-week to $4,862/FEU.

The Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) closed at 1,910.9 points, down 11.6 percent from last week.

The latest SCFI (9.9) continues to fall on all major routes.

The North American transport market failed to improve, and the supply and demand fundamentals are weak, resulting in a downward trend in freight rates.

The U.S. West rates declined from $ 3959 to $3484/FEU last week, a weekly decline of $ 475, down 12.0%, which is the lowest rate since August 2020.

U.S. East rates plummeted to $7,767/FEU, down $551 per week, or 6.6 percent, from $8,318 last week.

on European routes because of the economic slowdown, diminishing services, weakening manufacturing, and rising inflation. Market sentiment remains negative, and market rates continue to decrease.

The European basic port tariff is 3877 USD/TEU, down 375 USD per week, or 8.8%.

For the Mediterranean route, the price is 4222 USD/TEU, a decrease of 552 USD per week or 11.6%.

The price of the Persian Gulf route is $1,481/TEU, down $286 per week, down 16.2% from last week.

Australia and New Zealand routes: 2489 U.S. dollars/TEU, down 173 dollars a week, down 6.5%.

Route South America: 7 consecutive weeks of decline, $713/TEU, down from $ 798/week, down 10.0%.

During the first 17 weeks of the year, the Shanghai export container tariff composite index fell 17 weeks in a row, rebounded for four weeks, then fell again for 13 weeks in a row, and in late July, it fell below the level of the same period last year. During a market slump, even intra-day losses may total hundreds of dollars.

Why did shipping prices plunge?

According to Ding Chun, a professor at Fudan, among the many factors contributing to the drop in global shipping rates is the high inflation rate in Europe and the United States, coupled with geopolitical conflicts, energy crises, and epidemics, the University's Institute of World Economics.

The current plunge is expected to bring last year's abnormally high freight rates back to a relatively normal level, but Chun believes the sky-high shipping rates have ended.

CISN CEO Kang Shuchun says the plunge in ocean freight rates is due to an imbalance between supply and demand.

Some countries cut off the supply of specific materials during the epidemic due to supply chain disruptions; many countries hoarded materials, causing abnormally high shipping costs last year.

As a result of global economic inflationary pressures, demand declined this year. Also, the previously hoarded inventory market could not be digested, resulting in a worldwide "order shortage" when European and American importers reduced or even canceled their orders.

Shanghai International Shipping Research Center's chief information officer, Xu Kai, revealed that the port and navigation data show that in the third quarter of last year, about 30% of container ships were berthing. Still, this ratio dropped to about 26% this year, indicating an improvement in global shipping turnover capacity.

As a result, freight prices are lower due to the reduced demand for capacity in the global commodity trade.

There is pressure on shipping companies to renegotiate contract prices.

A recent shareholders' meeting revealed Yang Ming Marine was under pressure to "renegotiate" contract rates due to the continuous decline of spot freight rates. The shipping company received requests to lower contract rates from cargo owners. The company also publicly acknowledged receiving price cut requests from cargo owners for the first time!

Yong Ming Shipping stated, "In May, both shippers and we were optimistic about the market when negotiating contract rates for European and U.S. shipments." The sharp drop in spot rates has put a lot of pressure on these contracts. "

Third quarters are traditionally the peak season for global consolidation markets. Although many industry insiders were disappointed with the market's performance in July-September this year, the market failed to pick up as expected.

According to Maersk's report released earlier, this year's peak freight season was also marked by mediocre performance due to weak economic outlooks in western economies and sluggish consumer demand.

Compared to last year's shipping prices, which were in the tens of thousands of dollars at every turn, Chen Zhen, a researcher for Founder's medium-term futures, believes that the global container shipping market is still not optimistic in the fourth quarter. A peak season will occur without a strong demand, and shipping prices will fall further.