OceanX: Middle East madness yet to affect strong ocean volumes
Who put that cork there?
© Yukchong Kwan
Container derivatives may have finally become a workable solution following news that the first ever trade handled by the New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX) has been successfully brokered, this time for 40ft containers on an Asia-North Europe routing.
Making the trade via US financial services company Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) new Container Freight Futures NYFI, Clarksons brokered a rate of $2,650 per 40ft with NYSHEX’s latest NY Futures Index (NYFI) spot rate index at $2,226 per feu.
Container freight forwarder agreement broker at Clarksons Peter Stallion said: “The launch of Container Freight Futures with NYSHEX is an important and exciting development for the container market.
“We are pleased to see strong engagement from clients and clearing firms from day one, and we see this contract as a natural evolution for freight risk management.”
Futures have been bought and sold in China for several years, following the Containerized Freight Index Futures’ 2023 launch, supported by the well-established Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).
Efforts to launch a similar models in other markets have failed due to opaque pricing practices, but the NYFI was developed in an endeavour to bring such practices into the open, and is based on the prices paid on real cargo moves.
Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen said: “Two parties, one on the buy side and one on the sell side, have agreed that a rate reflecting lock-in of the spot rate at a level $424 per 40ft above the current level for May is a worthwhile deal to manage the market risk and uncertainty.”
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