Drewry’s World Container Index for average spot container shipping rates recorded a 9% week-on-week jump, rising to $4,530 per FEU in the 2 July 2026 assessment. It was the most significant figure in a week that divided the freight market: the main east-west trades accelerated under the pressure of an early peak season and increasingly tight capacity, while intra-Asia routes began to cool.
Among the routes monitored by Drewry, Shanghai-New York posted the sharpest weekly increase, up 11%, taking rates to $7,902 per FEU, 56% higher than in the same period of 2025. Shanghai-Genoa also rose, exceeding $6,000 per FEU ($6,360), with a 10% weekly increase and a 70% rise year on year. Shanghai-Los Angeles advanced by 10% to $6,349 per FEU, exactly double the level recorded a year earlier. The increase on Shanghai-Rotterdam was more limited but still strong, up 7% to $4,682 per FEU, 35% higher year on year. On return routes, rates remained unchanged. Rotterdam-Shanghai held at $647 per FEU, Los Angeles-Shanghai at $828 per FEU and New York-Rotterdam at $1,015 per FEU, with all three showing no weekly change. This asymmetry reflects the structural imbalance in return flows to Asia.
Sustained demand and deliberately constrained supply are driving transpacific rates, with Drewry counting eight blank sailings announced for the coming week. Carriers are responding with new General Rate Increases and Peak Season Surcharges. HMM, among them, has introduced an additional PSS of $3,000 per FEU, effective from 15 July. The picture is reversed on short-sea routes. The Intra-Asia Container Index (IACI) fell by 4% to $1,035 per FEU, marking its second consecutive weekly decline and signalling that the initial momentum from the regional peak season is fading. Shanghai-Jawaharlal Nehru Port, in India, dropped by 6% to $2,155 per FEU. The fall on Shanghai-Manila was more contained, down 3% to $555 per FEU, helped by the easing of congestion at the Philippine port, where average vessel waiting times fell by four hours in week 26. Shanghai-Laem Chabang also declined, to $974 per FEU. On the supply side, the return of Taiwan’s TVL Marine to the intra-Asia market and MSC’s strengthening of the Lang Co Express service, which is again calling at Nansha, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, are helping to ease pressure on regional rates.
The macroeconomic picture remains shaped by developments in the Middle East. The interim agreement between the United States and Iran allowed the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, helping restore shipping traffic and enabling the evacuation of vessels that had been blocked along authorised transit routes. The suspension of military escort operations, decided after an attack on a container ship off Oman, has pushed the risk level in the area higher again.
M.G.
