Market rates for the transportation of shipping containers have dropped 50% since January 2022, per the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX), the leading international freight rate index.1
Spot-market container shipping rates have dropped and are forecasted to continue this trend through the end of 2022 and into 2023 according to Jonathan Roach, Container Trade and Shipping Analyst at Braemar, a London-based expert advisory group in shipping investment, chartering, and risk management.2
According to Peter Sand, Chief Analyst at Xeneta, a freight market-analytics firm, shippers are benefiting from “freight rate reversal”.3 Xeneta said in an August report that spot-market container shipping rates have declined so rapidly prices have come closer to long-term contracts which have been traditionally lower.4
Keywords: Shipping, Container, Freight, Transportation
1“Freightos Baltic Index (FBX): Global Container Freight Index,” Freightos Ltd, accessed September 15, 2022, https://fbx.freightos.com/.
2Costas Paris, “Ocean Shipping Rates Have Plunged 60% This Year,” The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ocean-shipping-rates-have-plunged-60-this-year-11662375780.
3Augusta Saraiva, “Companies See Relief in Falling Spot Rates for Transpacific Freight,” Bloomberg L.P., June 23, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-06-23/supply-chain-latest-ocean-freight-rates-are-falling.
4Sonal Mishra, “Xeneta In the News Week 36, 2022,” Xeneta AS, September 8, 2022, https://www.xeneta.com/blog/xeneta-in-the-news-week-36-2022.