According to South Korea's "World Journal" reported on May 30, due to the increasing global logistics volume, container ship freight rates continue to rise, and the difficulties of export enterprises are increasing. According to the maritime industry on May 30, the Shanghai Container Freight Index (SCFI) rose 63.26 points from the previous week on the 28th to 3495.76 points, and has risen for 4 consecutive weeks since this month, the highest value since October 2009 statistics.
Freight rates on the East Coast routes to Europe and the Americas, which are mainly used by South Korean exporters, increased compared with the previous week, but freight rates on the West Coast routes in the Americas declined. Fares on european routes were $5,816 per TEUs, up $237 from the previous week and a record high. The 1FEU (40-foot container) on the East Coast of the Americas route rose $112, also at a highest value of $7633, while the West Coast route 1FEU plummeted $427 to $4416.
Kim Young-ho, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said that the strong container ship freight rate is due to the surge in demand, the backlog of major ports and the aftermath of the Suez Canal accident, and the possibility of a short-term tariff plunge is very small. Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, also predicts that the increase in freight rates will continue into the third quarter. While there are concerns about the increase in orders for new ships, it is difficult to see a continued plummeting trend in freight rates like in the past before 2023, when ships are actually delivered.
South Korean shipping company HMM said that in order to support South Korean export companies that are in trouble due to rising freight rates and insufficient container ships, it will invest in multi-purpose ships (MPVs) on the EAST Coast route of the United States. MPV is generally used to transport petrochemical equipment, power generation equipment and other super large special cargo or heavy cargo, but it can also be loaded into containers as needed, and HMM has invested 7 multi-purpose ships to support export enterprises.