Maritime transport is increasingly affected by sharp tariff fluctuations and geopolitical instability. In response, on 25 June 2025, Euronext announced the launch of the first European futures contracts based on the performance of container shipping rates. These are linked to the Xeneta Shipping Index by Compass (XSI-C). According to the exchange, the container shipping industry will now have access to regulated and transparent derivatives contracts that can help hedge against freight rate variations and make logistics costs more predictable.
The new futures are based on the XSI-C, a daily index developed through a partnership between Xeneta and Compass Financial Technologies, a firm specialising in the construction of alternative asset benchmarks. Introduced in December 2021, the index complies with the European Benchmark Regulation (EU BMR), making it suitable as the basis for financial contracts. It draws exclusively from committed rate data provided to Xeneta by its clients, which, according to the promoters, offers a reliable reflection of actual market prices. The index currently covers eight trade routes, including those linking Europe, Asia and the United States, and is updated daily with a two-day lag, published at 4:00 p.m. London time.
The Euronext futures are cash-settled and traded through the Amsterdam Commodity Derivatives Market. In the initial phase, they will cover trade routes between the Far East and Northern Europe, the Far East and the US West Coast, Northern Europe and the Far East, and Northern Europe and the US East Coast. The contracts are denominated in US dollars and centrally cleared through Euronext Clearing, which ensures settlement and removes counterparty risk. Expiry dates follow a hybrid cycle of five months each year: March, April, June, September and December.
The new product targets a wide range of market participants: exporting and importing companies, freight forwarders, shipping lines, logistics service providers, as well as institutional investors, who can now access a tool to hedge against rate risks or take positions on possible market developments.
The timing of the launch is no coincidence. In recent years, the market has experienced unprecedented volatility, with rates soaring during the pandemic and then dropping again—often unpredictably. Similar instruments have been attempted in the past: in 2010, Clarksons Securities launched swaps on container rates based on the then-emerging Shanghai Container Freight Index, but the project was abandoned in 2013 due to a lack of uptake. Today, however, conditions have changed. Volatility has become structural, and the industry's appetite for risk management tools has significantly increased.
Other markets are also moving in this direction. CME Group introduced container freight futures in 2022, linked to the Freightos Baltic Index, and since last year similar contracts have been traded in Shanghai on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange. Prices of these Asian futures already hint at a potential decline in Asia-Europe freight rates in 2025, underlining the predictive value of these instruments.
