News / Weaker demand will drive spot rates down post-CNY – but by how much?

© Tatyana Klimenko

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) did not publish today, due to the Chinese New Year holiday, but weaker demand is expected to exert downward pressure on the index in the coming weeks.

It is a question of how long the normal seasonal adjustment of spot rates will last on the key Asia-Europe and transpacific tradelanes.

Last year, CNY started 11 days later, on 16 February, and although in the first week of the SCFI’s resumption, spot rates were broadly flat, subsequent ...