The trend of China's Export Global Container Transport Market in August 2023

In August 2023, China's export container transport market began to stabilize after early adjustment. Transport demand is steady and improving, and the market rates of most ocean routes have risen, supporting the composite index to rise slightly. In August 2023, the average composite freight index of Chinese export containers released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange was 880.79 points, an average increase of 1.3% over the previous month, while the average Shanghai export container composite index reflecting the spot market was 1031.91 points, an average increase of 5.7% over the previous month.

1. The container throughput of the port has maintained steady growth, and the ship chartering market continues to decline.

① July 2023, the operation of major ports in China is good, port container throughput has maintained a steady growth, coastal and inland port throughput has shown a rising trend. According to statistics, the container throughput of ports across the country reached 27.05 million TEU, an increase of 2.6% over the same period last year. Of this total, the container throughput of coastal ports was 23.67 million TEU, up 1.8 percent from the same period last year, while that of inland ports was 3.38 million TEU, up 8.7 percent from the same period last year.

② container charter market continues to decline, all types of ship rentals have fallen. According to Clarkson, ship rents for 2750TEU, 4400TEU, 6800TEU and 9000TEU fell 10.9 per cent, 18.0 per cent, 12.7 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively in August from the previous month.

2. The high freight rate of Europe has fallen back.

Euroline, according to data released by research firm Sentix, showed that the euro area investor confidence index was-25.2 in August, which has been in a continuous negative range, indicating that the euro zone economy is still facing greater downward pressure, resulting in no significant improvement in investor confidence. In addition, the geopolitical risk in Europe continues to be high, and the energy supply is unstable, and the future European economic recovery will face a variety of risks. This month, the overall transport demand is stable, the fundamentals of supply and demand are basically balanced, and the market freight rate shows a trend of high before and low after. At the end of last month, shipping companies promoted the spot market freight rate to rise. Market freight rates basically maintained the results of the price increase in the first half of August, but there was a relatively obvious decline in the second half of the month. In August, the average freight index of Chinese exports to Europe and the Mediterranean was 1085.09 points and 1529.97 points respectively, up 3.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively from the previous month.

3. The North American market continues to improve

For North American routes, according to data released by ADP, a research institution, ADP employment increased by 324000 in July, significantly exceeding market expectations, indicating that the US job market is still relatively stable, supporting local residents' consumption and airline transportation demand. But at the same time, the Fed has taken aggressive interest rate increases to curb stubbornly high inflation, which could lead to further weakness in the job market in the future, thereby affecting the sustained recovery of the US economy. This month, transport demand continues to perform well, the fundamentals of supply and demand are solid, the average market loading rate remains high, and market freight rates continue to rise. In August, the average freight index of China's exports to the US-West and US-East routes was 750.25 points and 891.19 points respectively, up 11.7% and 8.9% respectively over the previous month.

4. Australia and New Zealand freight rates rebounded

On the Australia-New Zealand route, the demand for all kinds of materials in the local market has warmed up, the relationship between supply and demand has continued to improve, the fundamentals of supply and demand have improved, and market freight rates have rebounded this month. In August, the average freight index of Chinese exports to Australia and New Zealand was 616.32 points, an average increase of 6.9 per cent over the previous month.

5. South American freight rates have increased slightly

For South American routes, the economic situation of the destination countries in the near future is generally stable, transport demand shows signs of stabilizing, the fundamentals of supply and demand have improved, and market freight rates have risen slightly this month. In August, the average freight index of Chinese exports to South America was 705.46 points, an average increase of 2.1 per cent from the previous month.

6. Japanese freight rates have declined slightly.

Japanese routes, transport demand is generally stable, the market freight rate slightly downward. In August, the average freight index of Chinese exports to Japan was 780.30 points, down 4.0 per cent on average from the previous month.

(source: Shanghai Shipping Exchange transferred from: Ministry of Transport)