- The 90-day truce on the latest China trade tariff increase caused transpacific pricing to fall through December 2018.
- China-West Coast prices increased by 18% and China-East Coast jumped 14% as compared to 30 December 2018, China-North Europe prices have held firm.
- Prices are expected to stay buoyant through January.
The Baltic Briefing reports the following as the weekly Freightos Baltic container update of 18 January 2019.
Highlights
The 90-day truce on the latest China trade tariff increase caused transpacific pricing to fall through December. The price increases that came in the New Year, a combination of fuel-related surcharge increases and General Rate Increases (GRIs), have held this week. At $2,031, China-West Coast prices are 18% up from 30 December’s $1,722. China-East Coast jumped 14% (from $2,779 to $3,171) over the same period.
Philip von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal, VP of FBX, Freightos said,“Uncertainty around President Trump and Xi’s truce has kept US importers on their toes, stocking up before the next round of trade tariff increases. Carriers are coping differently – announcing a number of blank sailings around Chinese New Year.”
This week’s report
| Week 02 | Week 01 | Last year* | |
| Global | $1,578 | 2% | 27% |
| China – US West Coast | $2,031 | 1% | 49% |
| China – US East Coast | $3,171 | 1% | 37% |
| China – North Europe | $1,619 | 1% | 5% |
| * Compared to the corresponding week in 2017 | |||
The new GRIs and fuel-related surcharge increases introduced on 1 January have held, with transpacific prices rising slightly this week. There’s a current upsurge in demand as importers replenish after Christmas, and coupled with the Chinese New Year close down coming up, prices are likely to stay buoyant through January.
China-North Europe prices held firm after their 13% jump last week. With the three leading indexes all up, the global index also rose again this week.
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Source: The Baltic Briefing
