Maersk Tukang
BOX RATES on Asia/Europe routes are beginning to firm since the 1 July rate restoration schemes by major carriers.
BOX RATES on Asia/Europe routes are beginning to firm since the 1 July rate restoration schemes by major carriers.
Ocean freight buyers from the forwarding sector – consulted by Fairplay – estimated gains of $150-$200 per teu on the head-haul westbound trade.
Carriers including Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd set out to enforce increases of $200-500 per teu over June-August and onwards. But the lines are struggling to reintroduce separate bunker surcharges (BAF), which they stopped collecting earlier this year when the Asia/Europe trade went into free-fall.
A senior source at Danish forwarding group DSV predicted a modest $70-80 BAF per teu for July – which in recent weeks covers only the incremental bunker price rise.
The BAF is expected to rise by another $90 per teu as of 1 August, but that would still be far below cost.
Most bunker spending would remain locked in the base freight rate over coming weeks, the source predicted.
The average July all-inclusive rate for Asia/Europe westbound shipments is expected to level out at about $600 per teu, up from $350-400 last month.
But the overall freight market is considered to be highly diverse, a source at forwarder Hellmann Worldwide pointed out.
“You find anything from $700 up to about $1,400 per 40ft container in the market,” he said. Individual lines claim to be more successful on BAF collection than reported by the forwarders.
“We are applying full BAF quotations without compromise,” Peter Wolf, sales and commercial director at CMA GGM in Germany told Fairplay at a meeting in Hamburg this week.
MSC is also reported to take a tough line on bunker surcharges.
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