Among them, the 40-foot container freight rate departing from Shanghai to the west coast of North America fell to US$2,684, down nearly 70% from the beginning of the year; the 20-foot container freight rate departing from Shanghai to Europe fell to US$3,163, down about 60% from the beginning of the year.
The person in charge of a freight forwarding company said that a freight forwarding company could make a difference of more than $10,000 in reselling a cabin from China to the United States in the peak season last year, and , but now a cabin can only barely earn a few dozen dollars in operating fees. The era of high freight rates in the container shipping market has ended.
Since July, container shipping prices have begun to decline, and entering September, the decline has begun to increase. Many traders said sea freight rates in late September were less than 10% of the same period last year.
Shanghai Airlines Exchange released data on September 16 that the Shanghai Export Container Freight Index (SCFI) fell 249.47 points last week to 2312.65 points, lower than the low since late December 2020 and close to a "halving" compared with the beginning of the year.
According to media reports, due to the decline in freight rates, many shipping companies have begun to suspend their flights one after another to change the situation of oversupply.
Data released by Drewry, a maritime consulting agency, showed that in the five weeks from September 19 to October 23, the world's three major shipping alliances canceled a total of 101 voyages.
It is worth noting that 68% of vacant sea flights occur on trans-Pacific eastward trade routes, 24% occur on Asia-Nordic and Mediterranean routes, and 8% occur on transatlantic westward routes.
