Drewry WCI jumps 70% on rebound in US-bound shipping
Freight rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles have surged 57 per cent in the past week to $5,876 per 40ft container, marking a 117 per cent increase since May 8 (four weeks ago). Spot rates to New York have risen by 39 per cent over the past week and by 96 per cent over the same four-week period, according to Drewry's WCI.
Drewry's World Container Index has surged 70 per cent in four weeks, driven by a rebound in US-bound traffic after President Trump paused import tariffs. Freight rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles and New York have more than doubled since early May. While the current spike reverses earlier declines, Drewry expects spot rates to fall again in H2 due to weakening supply-demand balance.
Freight rates from Shanghai to Rotterdam and Genoa have also increased in the past week, by 32 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.
The latest sharp, short-term strengthening in the global container shipping supply-demand balance has reversed the downward rate trend that began in January.
However, Drewry's Container Forecaster anticipates that the supply-demand balance will weaken again in the second half of the year, causing spot rates to decline once more. The volatility and timing of these rate changes will depend on the outcomes of legal challenges to Trump's tariffs and on capacity shifts linked to the proposed US penalties on Chinese vessels, both of which remain uncertain.
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