Sea freight rates

Every week, through its collaboration with Drewry, FT Mercati publishes the World Container Index (WCI): the international reference for the cost of container transport. On the platform you find the composite index and the eight routes that make it up, expressed in dollars per 40-foot container, with the full history of the series: this week’s figure and the trend over time, for anyone who has to estimate the landed cost of goods and compare carriers’ offers.

The eight routes of the World Container Index

The WCI is built by Drewry on the eight major East-West routes of container traffic, assessed every week. These are the routes published by FT Mercati:

• Shanghai – Rotterdam: Asia-North Europe, the reference route for European imports from the Far East.
• Shanghai – Genoa: Asia-Mediterranean, the route of Italian and Southern European imports.
• Shanghai – Los Angeles: transpacific to the US West Coast.
• Shanghai – New York: transpacific to the US East Coast.
• Rotterdam – Shanghai: North Europe-Asia, the backhaul route that measures European exports to the Far East.
• Rotterdam – New York: transatlantic westbound.
• New York – Rotterdam: transatlantic eastbound.
• Los Angeles – Shanghai: transpacific backhaul, from the US West Coast to Asia.

The composite index summarises the eight routes in a single value: it is the number markets quote when they talk about container freight. The individual routes say where the market is tight: the legs from Asia to Europe and the United States are usually the most expensive, the backhauls the cheapest.

How to read the index

• Unit: US dollars per 40-foot container (FEU), based on the spot rates assessed by Drewry.
• Frequency: weekly, published on Thursdays; on FT Mercati the new value is available at every update, next to the history.
• What moves freight: the capacity offered by carriers and blank sailings, port congestion, the choke points (Suez, Red Sea, Panama), fuel costs and the seasonality of demand.

Who it is for

Anyone importing metals, semi-finished products and components from Asia, or exporting to the United States and China: freight is a line of the landed price and its swings, in some periods, are worth more than the metal’s. With the WCI you estimate transport costs, check the offers of carriers and forwarders and index logistics contracts. The sea freight guide explains the three markets, containers, bulk and tankers, and the Incoterms terminology.

Discover the FT Mercati platform

With the FT Mercati platform you have the WCI and its routes together with LME quotations, premiums, exchange rates and fundamental data: charts, history, averages and price alerts in one place.