The Suez Canal authority has this week announced that it has had talks between themselves, Maersk and CMA CGM, and that both carriers are committed to return partially from December to Red Sea transits. If this happens and other carriers follow, we will see tonnage free up as tonne miles drop.

This could also cause a softness of rates, but carriers could also take vessels out of services to firm up rates. The past week, we saw FBX01 (China/East Asia – US West Coast) drop by $117, down $1,279 from the start of the month, ending the week at $1,683. FBX03 (China/East Asia – US East Coast) dropped $240 week on week and is down $708 from the start of November, it ended the week at $2,794. FBX11 (China/East Asia – North Europe) lost $46 over the week and has remained fairly range bound all month, ended the week at $2,411. FBX13 (China/East Asia – Mediterranean) dropped $52 over the week ending at $2,882.