Supply Chain Research

Container rates on China-outbound routes stabilized in the week to December 15, after falling for three weeks, due to a 7.8% rebound in South Korean routes rise. That came in the same week that Maersk left the, somewhat ineffective, Transpacific Stabilization Agreement. The stabilization couldn’t prevent a negative benchmark being passed – the four week trailing average level of rates was lower than a year earlier for the first time in 56 weeks. The average for rates in the fourth quarter is now just 1% higher than a year earlier while bunker fuel rates have soared 22%. The start of 2018...