On December 16, the Shanghai Export Container Comprehensive Freight Index released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange was 1123.29 points, with the weekly decline narrowing to 1.3%, while the previous weekly decline once reached 10%.

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2025-10-16

Freight rates on the Asia-Europe route have rebounded, while freight rates on the Australia-New Zealand route have risen strongly

After freight rates continued to fall sharply, the global container shipping market has recently shown signs of stabilizing.

On December 16, the Shanghai Export Container Comprehensive Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange was 1123.29 points. The weekly decline narrowed to 1.3%, while the previous weekly decline once reached 10%.

However, compared with 1306.84 points on November 18, it fell 14%. Compared with the high point of more than 5,000 points at the beginning of the year, it has fallen sharply by nearly 80%.

It is worth noting that compared with the previous sharp decline in freight rates on main routes, in the past week, the European route market has shown signs of rebound, and freight rates have also rebounded.

On December 16, the market freight rate (shipping and shipping surcharges) of Shanghai Port exported to European basic ports was US$1,050/TEU, an increase of 0.3% from a week ago. Previously, the weekly decline in freight rates on the Asia-Europe route even reached an astonishing 20%.

Although the freight rate on the Asia-Europe route has stopped falling, it still fell by more than 10% compared with US$1,172/TEU a month ago. Compared with the high of US$7,500/TEU at the beginning of the year, the drop was as high as 86%.

Shanghai Shipping Exchange analyst analyzed that data released by the European Economic Research Institute (ZEW) showed that the ZEW economic prosperity index in the euro zone in December was -23.6, a new high since February 2022, indicating that the economic outlook has improved. Although inflation levels continue to remain high, inflation rates are beginning to fall. Coupled with the recent overall stability of the European energy market, the downward pressure on the economy has eased.

At present, European transportation demand is stable and the relationship between supply and demand is basically balanced. As a result, freight rates have increased slightly.

In contrast, the freight rate on the trans-Pacific route is still in a downward trend. On December 16, the market freight rates (sea freight and sea freight surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to the basic ports in the West and East US were US$1,423/FEU and US$3,169/FEU respectively, down 0.5% and 3.7% respectively from a week ago.

The Australia-New Zealand route has suddenly emerged, with freight rates rising for two consecutive weeks. On December 16, the market freight rate (sea freight and sea freight surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to Australia and New Zealand basic ports was US$738/TEU, an increase of 4.7% from a week ago. The previous week's weekly increase reached 17.1%.

Analysts at the Shanghai Shipping Exchange said that the demand for various materials in Australia and New Zealand is generally stable. Some shipping companies have taken measures such as controlling the deployment of shipping capacity. The relationship between supply and demand has improved, and market freight prices have rebounded strongly.

THE Alliance announced its new route upgrade plan for 2023

html On February 20, THE Alliance announced its new route upgrade plan for 2023, which will take effect from April 2023.

Compared with the past, an important adjustment is that THE Alliance will deploy larger new ships on the Asia-Northern Europe route. Energy-saving ships above 23,500TEU will replace smaller ships. The

THE Alliance says this is part of its commitment to provide more sustainable services by minimizing the carbon footprint of service networks.

Another major adjustment in the new plan is to deploy additional 14,000TEU to 15,000TEU ships on the Asia- Mediterranean route and the US East Route.

The new route network involves the Asia-Northern Europe route, Asia-Mediterranean route, trans-Pacific route-Western America route, trans-Pacific-US East route (via Panama Canal and Suez Canal), Asia- Middle East/ Red Sea route and trans-Atlantic route.

Asia-Northern Europe route

FP1 route continues to serve as a pendulum route between Europe, Asia and the US West Coast.