Transportation Demand Weakened in its Growth
Market Shipping Rates Sustained the Trend of Adjustment
Market quotations after the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday continued the rather sluggish performance shown before the festival. Weak growth in transportation demand brought about a continued adjustment trend in ocean shipping market rates, which dragged the composite index down. On September 16, the Shanghai Export Containerized Freight Index released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange was 2312.65 points, declining 9.7% compared to the previous period.
European Routes: The data released by the ZEW Center for European Economic Research showed that the Eurozone ZEW Economic Sentiment Index for September was -60.7, a drop of about 6 percentage points from the previous month, which showed that the European economic community was generally pessimistic about the outlook for economic development in the Eurozone. The recent more intense conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to geopolitical risks continuing to hover at a high level. Added with the high level of inflation, the future economic situation ahead is still subject to numerous risks. The performance of the transportation market remained unsatisfactory after the holidays, with market rates persistently declining. On September 16, the market freight rate (ocean freight and ocean freight surcharge) for export from Shanghai port to European basic port was US$3,545/TEU, declining 8.6% compared with the previous period. For Mediterranean routes, market quotations remained largely in sync with European routes, with adverse supply and demand and a continued decline in spot market booking prices. On September 16, the market freight rate (ocean freight and ocean freight surcharge) from Shanghai port to Mediterranean basic port was US$3,777/TEU, declining 10.5% compared with the previous period.