Transportation & Logistics Analysis

Captain Upply’s lane of week 7: Rotterdam - Ningbo

February 13 2019

This Europe-China route has faced low historical levels for more than a year. However, we are still observing additional pressure on rates for this corridor with an average value observed of $961 on Rotterdam - Ningbo (40HC) lane on Upply.

Some Dry GIFO rates have even reached the $500.00 USD price tag for a 40HC for direct port to port connections on this Europe-China corridor.

To explain this low-price trend, we identified some key factors:

  • Low volume available
  • New sourcing alternatives for consumer goods (milk powder, beer…)
  • Exports of papers and scraps to be recycled have been lower

In this context, Mega Carriers are still in a better half full than empty approach. An opportunity for carriers could occur thanks to the current Asian blank onboarding dynamic, due to Chinese New Year. As less vessels are currently sailing to Europe, the capacity available in the return trip Europe-Asia will be mechanically reduced in the coming weeks. This could put pressure on demand to onboard shipments and make rates go up on this route in the near future.

CaptainUpply_Rotterdam_Ningbo

To discover the latest trends on ocean freight rates, go to the benchmark page of upply.com!

See you next week,

Captain Upply

Photo Credit : dreamstime

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Expert in Ocean shipping for 25 years, Jerome puts all his knowledge of the industry to contribution for Upply. Ship captain at heart, he has written the English-French Lexicon of Containerized Shipping (Paris: CELSE, 2001).
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