ContainerSignal Daily: Rates slip again, carriers push increases
Container spot rates fell for a second consecutive week in the latest index assessments, with Drewry’s World Container Index down 1% to US$4,389 per 40ft container in the week to 5 November and the Freightos Baltic Index down 2% to US$3,452. The decline is shallow but it is spread across most of the main east-west lanes, and it is arriving while carriers push new peak season surcharges and higher FAK tariffs for the second half of November and for December. Separately, a Maersk-operated ship brought down a ship-to-shore crane at Yantian on 9 November, an operational risk at a terminal that carries a large share of south China’s container exports.
Today’s Signals
Freight Rates
Both headline benchmarks declined for a second week. Drewry’s assessment for 5 November put the composite at US$4,389 per 40ft, 1% lower week on week, and the index page notes the level remains 124% higher than a year earlier. The Freightos Baltic Index fell 2% to US$3,452 per 40ft in its latest weekly assessment. Both moves follow gains earlier in October, so the current direction is a partial reversal rather than a collapse. The figures are as compiled by Container News on 10 November; Drewry’s lane-level table sits behind a registration wall and Freightos renders its values in the browser, so neither could be read lane by lane from this desk.
| Index (provider) | Scope | Unit | Period | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Container Index (Drewry) | Composite, eight east-west lanes | per 40ft | Week to 5 Nov 2026 | US$4,389 | -1% week on week |
| Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) | Global composite | per 40ft | Latest weekly assessment | US$3,452 | -2% week on week |
| Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) | Composite | index points | 6 Nov 2026 | 3,633.45 | -1.46% |
| China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) | Composite | index points | 6 Nov 2026 | 1,924.69 | +2.28% |
| Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) | Composite | index points | 6 Nov 2026 | 2,443.24 | -1.93% |
| NYSHEX Freight Index (NYFI) | Asia to US West Coast | per FEU | 6 Nov 2026 | 7,823.86 | +1.29% |
| NYSHEX Freight Index (NYFI) | Asia to US East Coast | per FEU | 6 Nov 2026 | 10,101.42 | -0.23% |
| NYSHEX Freight Index (NYFI) | Asia to North Europe | per FEU | 6 Nov 2026 | 3,170.40 | -1.04% |
The Chinese benchmarks disagree with each other, which is the more useful signal. The SCFI fell 1.46% to 3,633.45 points on 6 November from 3,687.35 a week earlier, the CCFI rose 2.28% to 1,924.69 from 1,881.82, and the Ningbo index fell 1.93% to 2,443.24 from 2,491.26, per the same compilation. The NCFI and CCFI values are reported through Container News because the Ningbo publisher serves a video gate rather than index values to this host, so they carry that second-hand attribution. A composite that rises while its components fall usually reflects contract-weighted versus spot-weighted methodology rather than a genuine split in the market, and the guide to how WCI, FBX and SCFI are constructed sets out that difference.
Transpacific spot held while the Atlantic weakened. On the NYSHEX index for 6 November, Asia to US West Coast rose 1.29% to 7,823.86 per FEU and Asia to US East Coast slipped 0.23% to 10,101.42, while transatlantic westbound fell 3.57% to 2,840.25 and eastbound fell 5.86% to 1,058.39. The eastbound transatlantic move follows an 18.77% rise in the previous assessment, which is the kind of week-to-week swing that makes single-week readings on that lane unreliable.
Carrier Updates
Carriers are raising published tariffs even as the spot indexes soften. MSC lifted its FAK rates from Far East ports to North Europe, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for sailings from 15 November, with the 40ft dry rate to the West Mediterranean moving from US$5,000 to US$5,300, the East Mediterranean from US$5,100 to US$5,700 and the Black Sea from US$5,300 to US$5,900, as reported by Container News on 10 November. The same report says MSC widened the geographical scope of its piracy risk and Suez Canal surcharges, and that Maersk reintroduced a peak season surcharge from Far East Asia to the Mediterranean after withdrawing its previous one in September. Published FAK levels show pricing intent and are not the same as the rates cargo ultimately pays.
Hapag-Lloyd will raise North Europe to South Asia base rates from 1 December. The increase covers dry containers to Ennore in India, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Colombo in Sri Lanka, and applies to sailings from 1 December 2026 until further notice, according to Container News. The published figures are base ocean rates; bunker, security, terminal handling and contingency charges sit on top.
| Destination | 20ft dry, current | 20ft dry, new | 40ft dry, current | 40ft dry, new |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ennore, India | US$714 | US$914 | US$793 | US$893 |
| Chittagong, Bangladesh | US$1,340 | US$1,540 | US$355 | US$455 |
| Colombo, Sri Lanka | US$640 | US$840 | US$255 | US$355 |
Maersk set its revised peak season surcharge from the Indian subcontinent to the US East and Gulf coasts at US$3,850 and US$4,200 per container. The advisory, issued on 5 November and effective from 8 November 2026, applies US$3,850 from Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, Nepal and Bhutan, and US$4,200 from Ennore, Chennai, Kolkata, Haldia, Visakhapatnam, Cochin, Kattupalli, Krishnapatnam, Tuticorin, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives, as reported by Maritime Gateway. Houston is excluded from the destination scope and the surcharge does not apply to Maersk Spot bookings. On a market where the composite index is easing, surcharges of that size on a single lane are the mechanism that keeps realised revenue from following the index down, and blank sailings are the other lever carriers use to defend the same number.
COSCO Shipping Holdings reported an 80.73% rise in third-quarter profit. Profit attributable to shareholders reached about US$2.58 billion, operating revenue rose 29.39% to about US$11.34 billion and EBIT increased 69.61% to US$3.47 billion, FreightWaves reported on 9 November. Container volume rose 4.46% to 7.21 million TEU while container revenue rose 30.35% to about US$10.98 billion, so revenue per box expanded: transpacific revenue grew 61.20% against volume growth of 12.98%, and Asia-Europe revenue 25.74% against 14.64%. Nine-month profit reached about US$4.59 billion, up 13.22%. The company warned that Middle East developments remain a critical factor for the supply-demand balance.
Ports
A Maersk-operated containership struck and brought down a ship-to-shore crane at Yantian. The 366 metre, 15,516 TEU Maersk Cincinnati hit the crane at berth 12 of the Shenzhen terminal at around noon local time on 9 November while berthing, Splash247 reported. The Singapore-flagged, 2024-built ship was on voyage 645W of the Gemini Cooperation’s Asia to North Europe NE3 service, with AIS data placing it at Yantian on Monday and still alongside on Tuesday. The extent of the damage is unclear, there are no confirmed reports of injuries and no confirmed details of disruption to terminal operations. Neither Maersk nor the terminal operator has given a detailed account, and the cause has not been established; Shenzhen’s meteorological authorities had issued a monsoon warning for the area at 06:10 that morning with gusts of force 8 or above forecast. Yantian handled a similar crane collapse in September 2024, when a quay crane came down on the 1,730 TEU MSC Riona at berth two.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach watchmen’s contract has been extended to 20 November. The Pacific Maritime Association and ILWU Local 26, which represents roughly 250 watchmen at the two ports, extended their existing agreement on Friday, averting an immediate strike while leaving the dispute unresolved, gCaptain reported on 9 November. The extension moves a deadline that has already slipped once this autumn rather than removing it.
Trade Routes
US container imports hit their highest level of 2026 in September. Ports covered by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates’ Global Port Tracker handled 2.37 million TEU of loaded imports in September, up 12.6% from a year earlier and 3.4% from August, making it the third-busiest month in the survey’s history behind July 2025 and May 2022. October is estimated at 2.26 million TEU, up 9.1%, with November forecast at 2.05 million TEU and December at 2.03 million TEU, both up just over 1%. The full year is now put at 26 million TEU, a 2% increase on 2025’s 25.4 million TEU and an upward revision from the 25.8 million TEU projected in October.
The same forecast has the first quarter of 2027 falling. January imports are projected at 2.04 million TEU, down 3% year on year, February at 1.89 million TEU, down 0.5%, and March at 1.92 million TEU, down 11.2%. NRF vice president Jonathan Gold said volumes remain strong as the season winds down, but noted backups at some ports, particularly on the West Coast, where containers wait to be transferred to rail. The pattern is front-loading ahead of tariff changes rather than underlying demand growth, which is why the quarterly forecast turns negative even as the annual total rises.
Regulation & Policy
China extended its suspension of special port fees on US ships to January, according to the Journal of Commerce. The move followed a US Trade Representative notice on Friday saying the agency would postpone port fees on China-built or China-controlled ships calling at US ports for two months from Monday, the Journal of Commerce reported on 10 November. Neither the USTR notice nor the Chinese announcement could be read directly from this desk, so the timing and scope here rest on that report rather than on the primary documents. A two-month deferment is a suspension of collection, not a repeal, and the underlying measures remain in place for review in January.
The IMO Council said seafarers are bearing an unacceptable cost of geopolitical conflict. Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said crews continue to lose their lives, suffer injuries, face abandonment and are denied repatriation and basic supplies, after the latest fatality aboard the tanker Velos Sapphire, gCaptain reported. The Council condemned Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, Russian attacks on shipping and port infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s Black Sea corridor, and noted 17 attempted or actual piracy and armed robbery incidents in the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden since the start of 2026.
What It Means
For shippers, the index direction and the invoice direction have parted company. The composite is down 1% and the FBX 2%, yet a single subcontinent to US East Coast surcharge now runs to US$3,850 or US$4,200 per container, and MSC’s Mediterranean FAK levels rose by between 6% and 11.8% depending on destination. Contract negotiations over the next eight weeks should separate base ocean rate from the surcharge stack, because the first is easing and the second is being repriced upward.
For the transpacific, the demand picture is a pulled-forward peak rather than a strengthening market. September’s 2.37 million TEU was record territory, but the same forecast has March 2027 imports 11.2% below this year’s level. Carriers defending rate levels into that softening will lean on capacity management, and the fleet arriving from 2027 onward is the reason the surplus arrives in two waves rather than one.
For ports, the Yantian crane strike is a single-berth event, not a systemic closure, and there is no confirmed evidence yet of a schedule impact. It lands at a terminal that anchors a large share of south China export capacity and sits inside the Gemini network, where a delayed vessel propagates through a tightly scheduled loop rather than absorbing slack, which is the operating logic that the alliance model is built on.
Sources
- Container News, container freight rates weaken as WCI and FBX extend declines, 10 November 2026: https://container-news.com/container-freight-rates-weaken-as-wci-and-fbx-extend-declines/
- Drewry, World Container Index assessment for 5 November 2026: https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/world-container-index-assessed-by-drewry
- Container News, Asia-Mediterranean freight pricing, 10 November 2026: https://container-news.com/asia-mediterranean-freight-pricing-the-costs-beyond-headline-rates/
- Container News, Hapag-Lloyd raises North Europe to South Asia tariff rates, 10 November 2026: https://container-news.com/hapag-lloyd-raises-north-europe-south-asia-tariff-rates/
- Maritime Gateway, Maersk revised Indian subcontinent peak season surcharge, 10 November 2026: https://www.maritimegateway.com/maersk-sets-revised-north-america-peak-season-surcharge-at-us3850-4200-per-container/
- FreightWaves, COSCO third-quarter results, 9 November 2026: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/cosco-profit-rockets-81-as-ocean-freight-revenue-climbs-in-q3
- Splash247, Maersk boxship knocks down crane at Yantian, 10 November 2026: https://splash247.com/maersk-boxship-knocks-down-crane-at-yantian/
- gCaptain, US container imports hit 2026 high in September, 9 November 2026: https://gcaptain.com/u-s-container-imports-hit-2026-high-in-september-as-extended-peak-season-winds-down/
- gCaptain, IMO warns of mounting human toll, 10 November 2026: https://gcaptain.com/imo-warns-of-mounting-human-toll-as-attacks-on-commercial-shipping-continue/
- Journal of Commerce, China extends port fee suspension on US ships to January, 10 November 2026: https://joc.com/article/china-extends-port-fee-suspension-on-us-ships-to-january-after-ustr-deferment-6320646
Background reading
The explainers behind today's stories, if you want the fundamentals first.
Asia-Europe rates fall a thirteenth week as transpacific eases
Drewry's World Container Index fell 2% to US$4,351 per 40ft in the week to 8 October, Asia-Europe's thirteenth weekly decline, as transpacific rates eased.
World Container Index falls 3% as transpacific rates slide
Drewry's composite fell 3% to US$4,429 per 40ft as transpacific spot rates dropped, while Asia-Europe held and carriers pushed US$3,000 November increases.
Asia-Europe and transpacific rates rise as capacity sets records
Spot rates gained on both main headhauls in the week to 23 October, led by Asia-Europe, even as Sea-Intelligence recorded record deployed capacity.
Related reading
ContainerSignal Daily: Xeneta sees spot rates down 30% in 2027
Xeneta's 2027 outlook puts global average spot rates 30% below the third quarter of 2026 as Red Sea capacity returns and the fleet grows 6.8%.
ContainerSignal Daily: Suez traffic hits high as spot rates ease
Suez Canal transits rose 32% in October to 1,490 ships, the most since the Red Sea crisis began, as Drewry's World Container Index slipped 1%.
ContainerSignal Daily: LA-Long Beach strike deadline set to slip
A walkout by ILWU Local 26 watchmen at Los Angeles and Long Beach is expected to move to 4 November, as Drewry's composite falls 3% and a boxship sinks off Bulgaria.