News / Carriers put on a brave face amid further decline in ocean spot rates

Photo: Christian Horz, Dreamstime.com

Container spot freight rates on the main east-west trades saw another week of declines, although, in contrast to most of January and February, the falls this week were led by the Asia-North America trades.

Whereas the weekly falls in spot freight rates so far this year have largely taken place on the Asia-North Europe and Asia-Mediterranean routes, this week saw the steepest declines occur ex-Asia, to the US west and east coasts.

Drewry’s World Container Index’s (WCI) Shanghai-Los Angeles leg saw the ...