The container rates between Asia and Europe more than doubled last week, increasing by a whopping 174 percent according to the SCFI index. The increase came as a teaser before the announced general rate increase on July 1st, today, and points toward a common recognition from the shipowners, says Lars Jensen, CEO and partner at analysts SeaIntel.
"All the carriers have now recognized that they have to exert discipline in order to push up the rates. Sure, they've reduced capacity a little, but overcapacity remains the basic problem, and thus the rate level depends more on carriers' price discipline than the supply/demand balance," he tells ShippingWatch.
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