Long-term ocean freight rates slid once again in August, marking the 12th consecutive month of declines for beleaguered carriers. According to the latest real-time data from the Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI), contracted rates fell 7.8% in August, meaning prices have now dropped 62.7% since this time last year. The world’s busiest routes – exports from the Far East – have endured the most dramatic declines, with Xeneta’s regional sub-index showing a 75% year-on-year fall in the value of valid contracts.
After month of falling rates since this time last year, with the smallest decline being 0.1% in December 2022, while May 2023 saw a collapse of 27.5%.
In Europe, the import sub-index fell 3.4% for the month and is now down 60.1% year-on-year. Exports fared slightly better, with a dip of 2.8% from July (down 52.4% since August 2022), despite a significant drop of 13.6% in contracted prices on the export trade from North Europe to China, which has now collapsed 85.4% year-on-year.
The US Import XSI recorded this month’s largest fall, sinking by 14.9% to leave it 65.2% down year-on-year. The biggest monthly rates drops were seen out of China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea - to both US West and East coasts – with price falls ranging from 19.3% to 62.3%. The XSI for US exports was this month’s most resilient figure, losing just 0.8% of its value.
Xeneta’s data continues to paint a bleak picture for Far East contracted export rates, with the sub-index registering a 14.2% monthly decline for August. The region’s import XSI fared better, with a decline of 2%, now down 51.1% year-on-year.
Xeneta is the leading ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform transforming the shipping and logistics industry. Xeneta’s data is comprised of over 350 million contracted container and air freight rates and covers over 160,000 global ocean trade routes and over 40,000 airport-airport connections. Xeneta is a privately held company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and regional offices in New York and Hamburg.