The week-long obstruction of the Suez Canal has passed, but its impact is looming.

Ships and containers in Asia have been restricted, and the spot freight rates of containers on popular routes such as Europe and the United States have risen sharply, and the ports have continued to be congested. The consequences of the week-long blockage of the Suez Canal began to appear, and the spot freight rates of the Asian-European and American routes “increased substantially”. On the trans-Pacific trade route, the Freightos Baltic Exchange (FBX) index from Asia to the West Coast of the United States rose 4% last week to $5,375/FEU, an increase of 251% over the same period last year. Last Friday, the North European and Mediterranean regions of Ningbo Container Freight Index (NCFI) surged by 8.7%, which is almost the same as the freight rate (ocean and ocean freight surcharges) (SCFI) of 3964 US dollars/TEU for exports from Shanghai to Europe’s basic port, up 8.6% from the previous period. Coincides with the growth.

NCFI commented: “The shipping companies collectively pushed up the freight rates in April, and the booking prices rose sharply.” 　　 To make matters worse, while freight rates are skyrocketing, U.S. shipping may usher in its busiest summer.

On the one hand, the new crown epidemic has stimulated the rapid development of the “home economy”, and people have become keen on online shopping, which has caused the volume of consigned freight to soar. On the other hand, the economic stimulus policy of the Biden administration and the continuous isolation policy in the winter in the United States have made this situation worse.

Before the Suez incident, more and more people were worried that because the bottleneck of the operation has not been resolved, some products may not find vacancies or empty containers on the ship. This worry is not unreasonable. Therefore, in the past few weeks, many shippers have signed transportation contracts at high prices, often beyond the acceptable range.

Sea-Intelligence believes that the Suez Incident will prolong the capacity problem, which is likely to become a “boost”. More shippers will choose higher freight rates to avoid their products from being stuck in the place of origin, and the high freight rates will remain for a long time. time.