News / Softening Asia-Europe rates sees carriers move to offer short deals to SMEs

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With Asia-North Europe container spot rates still falling, ocean carriers are now canvassing smaller shippers to agree short-term three-month contracts.

Staple three-month deals with forwarders and NVOCCs were all but suspended last year as carriers carefully choose the counter-parties they wanted for their long-term contracts of 12 months or more, with the remainder of shippers consigned to the spot market or, at best, offered rates valid for a month or less.

But according to the Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) commentary, there ...