News / Asia-Europe ocean spot rates sail into calmer waters as boxes are returned

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Container shipping spot freight rates on the Asia-North Europe trade declined 2.7% this week – a further sign the recent exponential growth has levelled off.

Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) Shanghai-North Europe leg was $4,276 per teu, down $117 per teu from last week, as carriers began to release more equipment to customers in China.

Christoph Baumeister, senior trade manager Asia/ISC-Europe at Flexport, said the rates decline was mainly driven by prepaid contracts and that carriers were accepting more bookings “in ...