Red Sea Continues, Shipping Rates Will Rise Further

Under the influence of the Red Sea crisis, the container shipping market is experiencing an unprecedented challenge.

The crisis began late last year when carriers began pulling out of the Red Sea, causing freight rates to rise sharply.

While market conditions remain tight, there are signs that the container shipping industry will see some normalisation after the Chinese New Year holiday.
According to Guillaume Caill, maritime Manager at Flexport Benelux, "In the medium term, sea freight rates are expected to likely reach an inflection point and are expected to remain high until the Lunar New Year. This prediction seems to be validated by the market, as Xeneta recently released data showing that ocean freight rates will continue to rise in February."
Freight rates from the Far East to the Mediterranean will increase the most, with the market average short-term rate expected to rise by 11% to $6,507 per FEU on February 2. This is the highest increase since the escalation of the Red Sea crisis in 2017, and the increase has reached 243 percent since mid-December.
Similarly, freight rates from the Far East to Northern Europe are also on the rise, with the average market price expected to rise by 8% to $5,106 per FEU on February 2.

That's up 235 percent since mid-December.
The route with the biggest rate increase is from the Far East to the US East Coast, where newly released data shows that average short-term rates will rise by 17 per cent to $6,119 per FEU by February 2, after a 146 per cent increase since mid-December.