Shipowners are getting tougher on capacity management and spot rates on Far East routes are rising！

With liner companies again increasing the Integrated Rate surcharge (GRI), rates on trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe routes increased significantly, and spot rates on trans-Atlantic routes stopped falling.

Xeneta's XSI Asian-Nordic spot freight index edged down 2.5 percent last week to an average of $1,692 /FEU after rising 31 percent the previous week.

Although the average freight rate is lower than the FAK of about $2,000 /FEU sought by the liner companies, the current round of GRI increases has still been a success and is the basis on which they can continue to increase GRI in September. In addition, some liner companies from China to Northern Europe still have prices of $1,300 or less, valid for two weeks.

Despite this, Asian-Nordic route liners are being more judicious in their capacity management, including number one Mediterranean Shipping (MSC), which has cancelled relaunched standalone routes in the past two weeks. Despite the significance of the relaunch of the Swan Loop in May, Mediterranean shipping did not hesitate to cancel the voyage due to weak demand.

The liner companies' positive attitude toward capacity management dovebacks with the downbeat outlook for liner profits presented by Marsky and Hapag-Lloyd in their second-quarter earnings reports. Hapag-lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said there were many routes that were "significantly below cost" and "unsustainable".

He said capacity growth will continue to outpace demand through 2024, meaning, he said, "we need to control costs as aggressively again as we have in the past".

However, container spot rates on the more robust Asian-Mediterranean route do not appear to be feeling any pressure from the injection of extra capacity, with Drewry's WCI unchanged last week at $2,072 /FEU.

On the trans-Pacific route, targeted capacity management has also played a major role in maintaining GRI's recent gains, with XSI Asia to the West Coast of the United States edging up 3.5% last week to $2,006 /FEU. On the U.S.-East route, the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) rose 9% last week to $2,904 /FEU.

This may have been caused by a spike in the number of days ships have to wait to pass through the Panama Canal, with delays caused by a reduction in the number of ships allowed to use the waterway each day due to low water levels.

On other routes, on transatlantic routes, the plunge in spot prices has bottomed out, with all indices largely stable last week with prices between $1,600 and $1,700 /FEU.

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