News / Carriers can't stop the rot: box shipping rates continue to hit new all-time lows

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Spot rates on the main east-west tradelanes suffered further serious losses this week with carriers seemingly powerless to stop the rate rot, despite a desperate strategy of blanked sailings and announcing massive general rate increases.

Indeed, today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) shows a sea of red numbers, with both Asia-Europe and Asia-US sectors losing ground – the latter actually losing more than the previous week’s $600 per 40ft GRI between Asia and the US west coast.

The $309 per 40ft plunge ...