Under the influence of US President Trump's tariff policy, Asian exports to Europe and the United States are still sluggish.
SCFI announced that the freight index on March 21 was 1292.75 points, down 26.59 points from the previous period of 1319.34 points, narrowing to 2.02% from 8.14% last week. The overall freight marketStill in a downturn.
Industry insiders pointed out that the current freight rates of the four major ocean routes in Europe and the United States are lower than any period in 2024, and allContinuous decline.
Among them, the freight rates in the United States and West have approached or fell below the cost prices of some shipping companies, while the European line hovered around the cost prices.
In response, large transportation companies have successively expressed their views on saving the "price". Large transportation companies such as Mediterranean Shipping and Hapag-Lloyd plan to shout a rise in the US line in early April, with an increase of about US,000-1,100 per FEU, hoping to raise the spot price and support the long-term price.
The largest decline in this round is the South American line, Gundam13.62%.
In terms of the European line, the freight rate from Shanghai to Europe was US,306/TEU, down 2.68% from the previous period; the freight rate from Shanghai to Mediterranean was US,195/TEU, down 4.36% from the previous period.
Due to the small amount of cargo and large ships, Mediterranean Shipping has announced that it will continue to use the quotation at the end of March in the first week of April, which means that the plan to raise the rise in early April was suspended.
Industry said that the United States continues to disrupt the pace of shipment, which has triggered a wave ofA rush to avoid tariffs, reflected in the total import volume of the United States in the first two months increased by 9% year-on-year, second only to the epidemic period.
The freight rate of the US line is relatively stable. The freight rates from Shanghai to the West and the United States were US,872/FEU and US,866/FEU, respectively, down 4.73% and 3.73% from the previous period, respectively.
Some industry insiders revealed that US line freight rates have shown signs of bottoming out and rebounding. After the US reciprocal tariffs are announced on April 2, orders will be signed one after another, and the volume is expected to rebound.
In mid-April, freight rates on the US Western Front are expected to rebound to around US,650, while the US Eastern Front is expected to return to US,650.
Some shipping personnel believe that the impact of tariffs is short, long and long, and the tariff war is fought and negotiated. The market enters the observation period, and the shipment owners are cautious in shipment, which affects the volume of goods. Once the tariff war negotiations become clear and enters the adaptation period, the volume of goods is expected to gradually recover.The probability of a rebound in freight rates will also increase.
In addition, recentlyThe Middle East Red Sea CrisisThe new outbreak has led to tight dispatch of ships. As long as cargo volume rebounds, this tension may further boost freight rates.
Looking ahead to the supply and demand of the container transportation market this year, AlphalinerpredictData shows that in 2025, capacity supply increased by 5.7%, demand increased by about 2.5%. The pressure of oversupply is still there, but the growth rate is slowing down compared with 2024.
If the Red Sea crisis eases or the centralized delivery of new ships may aggravate freight fluctuations. In addition to the Red Sea pass risks, we must also pay attention to Sino-US tariff policies, Russia-Ukraine conflicts, etc., which may push up bypass costs or disrupt regional trade flows.
Judging from the announcements issued by various shipping companies, although some shipping companies plan to raise freight rates in April, the actual transaction price in the first week of April still continued the quote at the end of March, and the freight rates did not rise and were still maintained.
