News / Intra-Asia rates cool down with new services and added capacity

Photo: Wan Hai Lines

Intra-Asia rates have shown a correction over the first two weeks of January, after rising throughout last month, as new services and capacity have begun to make an impact.

Drewry’s Intra-Asia Container Index shows average freight rates at $661 per 40ft on Friday, down from $700 on 2 January.

Korea Ocean Business Corp’s Container Composite Index today shows stable rates for South Korea-China and South Korea-Japan, at $51 and $214 per 40ft, respectively. However, South Korea-South-east Asia dipped to $931 per 40ft, a $7 drop from last week.

And forwarders told The Loadstar there was no lack of shipping slots and it would be difficult for carriers to push for substantially higher rates.

Drewry’s GM (China) Du Yu added that while cargo volumes remained healthy, this had been tempered by more services and ships deployed in recent weeks.

Ms Du said: “Through December, the effective capacity deployed by carriers increased across many intra-Asia corridors. For example, for all export trades from Greater China combined, the month-on-month increase was 17%, and for exports from South-east Asia, even 22%.

“The situation on the demand side was more stable – while intra-Asian exports from the south-east grew 0.4%, those from Greater China shrank 2.3%.”

As rates reached a six-month high in the final two weeks of 2025, many shipping lines enhanced their intra-Asia presence, including HMM, Wan Hai, Interasia, CMA CGM’sCNC Line and Shanghai Jin Jiang, .

Wan Hai and Interasia upsized capacity on their joint New Super 5 (NS5) service this month, replacing 2,000 teu and 3,000 teu vessels on the loop that connects Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Busan, Xiamen, Chiwan, Nansha, Port Klang, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Shekou and Tokyo.

Ms Du continued: “Given the Chinese New Year falls relatively late [17 February] and rates are already softening, Drewry believes that the peak season is over.”