By Stuart Chirls of AmericanShipper
The container shipping market is being driven by geopolitics, rates, and network reshuffling, but freight-rate volatility and adjustments by carriers to protect schedules and pricing has supplanted Middle East disruptions as top-level concerns.
Asia-U.S. West Coast prices increased 8% to $6,175 per forty foot equivalent unit (FEU), according to Freightos, a data contributor to SONAR ocean market data.
Prices for Asia-U.S. East Coast transportation also rose 8%, to $7,998 per FEU.
SONAR‘s Ocean Supply/Demand Index reflects the surge in trans-Pacific demand, having recovered to year-ago levelsIran has escalated steps to assert sole authority over vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, writes Freightos Research Head Judah Levine, in a note to clients, even as it negotiates with the United States over terms of a final peace deal.
"Oil volumes out of the Gulf states are rebounding, though marine traffic was paused … following Iranian strikes on transiting vessels and sites in Bahrain and Kuwait,” Levine said.
The United Nations abandoned ship evacuations after Tehran attacked a M
