As the crisis intensified, the ship continued to circle

With the intensification of the Red Sea crisis, the Shanghai export container Freight Index (SCFI) in the first week of 2024 rose, rising 137.07 points from the previous week to 1896.65 points, a weekly increase of 7.79%, and a monthly increase of 83.75%.

Although the weekly increase has been reduced from the previous period, the rise is still strong, and the rise is mainly led by the United States line, Shanghai to the United States East route up 10.45%, to the United States West route up 8.7%. At the same time, the European route and the Mediterranean route also have different degrees of increase, 6.57% and 3.7% respectively.

It is worth noting that due to the chain effect of rising freight rates, Southeast Asia rose by 24.5% and the Persian Gulf line rose by 14.3%.

The crisis in the Red Sea has caused traffic to be blocked and forced to detour, which will inevitably lengthen the transportation time. At the same time, the overall cost of transport has also risen. Some shippers said that there are four containers from China to Morocco, and now the price is more than 100,000 yuan less than in early December last year. Some freight forwarders have feedbacks that the price of a container sent before is $2,300 - $2,400, and now it is conservatively estimated to be about $6,500.

Global shipping giant Maersk announced on the 5th that the situation in the Red Sea region is still highly tense and full of uncertainty, and all available intelligence confirms that the security risk is still at a significantly elevated level. As a result, all of the company's vessels will no longer pass through the Red Sea for the foreseeable future, and customers are warned to be prepared for serious supply disruptions.

According to industry sources, because of the large number of ships choosing to bypass the Red Sea and go to the Cape of Good Hope, the voyage has been extended by three to four weeks. That means ships and empty containers may not be able to return to Asia in time to load their cargo. The worst impact of the Red Sea crisis on the shipping industry is expected to be in the fourth to sixth week, around the second half of January, when there may be shortages of vessels and containers.