Supply Chain Research

Container shipping rates have weakened over the past month, with the benchmark North Asia to West Coast North America rate falling to $1,350 / FEU from $1,500 / FEU between Jan. 24 and Feb. 24 according to S&P Global Platts data. Perhaps unsurprisingly market participants are blaming volume shortages due to the outbreak of COVID-19, with one freight forwarder commenting “there isn’t any cargo around – nobody has come back to work”. It’s worth bearing in mind that though that the Shanghai Shipping Exchange index has only so far performed inline with the median of the past seven years with...