Sea freight prices continue to climb and are expected to fall in the second half of the year

At the end of 2023, affected by the Red Sea crisis, international shipping prices climbed, especially in Europe and the United States routes in just one month, the freight rate has doubled growth.May is the traditional off-season in the international shipping market, but this year, the situation is different, since the end of April, Europe, the Americas routes shipping prices generally rose in the double-digit rate, part of the routes shipping prices soared by nearly 50%, “one box Difficult to find” situation reappeared.

The background of the recent price hikes, is the maritime industry, many trunk lines have been in a state of full capacity.

The current trend of shipping prices by a variety of factors, including the sustainability of economic recovery, changes in the geopolitical situation, the development of supply and demand for capacity.

Red Sea bypass is also one of the factors leading to containerized shipping price increases. Some analysts said in the study, the red sea crisis led to more ships have to avoid the red sea route around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, resulting in a global conglomeration of obstruction, so that the conglomerate industry in the delivery of new capacity record at the same time as the tightening of supply and demand issues. Container ships bypassing the Red Sea of the long-term trend is obvious, the bypass led to the sailing distance growth of about 29%, the demand for maritime transportation also grow accordingly.

Industry insiders believe that the wave of shipping prices by the Red Sea situation, foreign trade enterprises “grab exports”, shipowners raise prices and other factors to promote the short-term freight rates are expected to remain at a high level of oscillation, but will not continue to grow significantly. The freight prices will not last too long, is expected to ease within three months.