Container shipping rates continue to fall

For the 18th consecutive week, global container shipping rates have continued to fall, raising further concern within the industry.

Rates on services to the US west coast also slid $43, to reach $2,159 per teu, and services to the east coast were down $98 to $3,459 per teu.

Analysts at the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) said: “The demand in European services didn’t show any signs of recovery this week, and the capacity available on the market was still in over-abundance.
“Yet despite the excessive capacity, carriers didn’t seem to lower the price; while some of them were poised to cut capacity in order to regain market equilibrium.

The SSE added: “It seems North America was also impacted by a similar predicament in Europe and the Mediterranean, as surplus capacity remains.

“In addition, the fourth quarter has always been a slack season for the box shipping industry, so the freight rate was expected to maintain the slump trend.”