© Rpianoshow
Congestion at several ports continues to put upward pressure on intra-Asia container freight rates, despite improving conditions at major Chinese gateways and key transhipment hubs.
The result is the Drewry Intra-Asia Container Index (IACI) is up by $46, to $1,504 per 40ft.
Spot rates from Greater China to North-east, South-east and South Asia were mostly stable during the week, as major ports, including those in China and Singapore, managed to absorb congestion.
However, smaller South-east Asian ports continued to struggle with vessel delays and operational constraints, keeping rates elevated on several tradelanes.
Rates from Shanghai to Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, and Laem Chabang remained high and continued to rise. At the end of October, rates from Jakarta to Shanghai were up 9% from the previous week, to $81 per 40ft.
The Shanghai Containerised Freight Index on Friday showed the Shanghai-South-east Asia rate up 2% from 30 October, to $1,164 per teu.
Jakarta’s primary port, Tanjung Priok, is struggling to cope with vessel bunching, because sudden, unscheduled multi-ship arrivals instantly overwhelm bottlenecked roads and container depots that are already at full capacity.
One forwarder at Taiwan’s Dimerco told The Loadstar Jakarta’s landside logistics had not caught up with improvements in terminal capacity.
In August, Indonesia state-owned terminal operator Pelindo preliminarily launched Terminal 2 Petikemas. However, construction of New Priok Eastern Access, a new road to improve access, only started in July, and will take 20 months to finish.
The forwarder said: “Slow turnaround makes shipping lines reluctant to absorb the costs of repositioning empty containers. This local equipment shortage drives up the prices for available containers.”
At Ho Chi Minh City, average vessel waiting times have increased from eight to 22 hours over the past fortnight, reflecting worsening congestion at the Vietnamese port. Rates from Shanghai remained unchanged, at $44 per 40ft.
In contrast, improving conditions at the major ports resulted in modest rate reductions on some routes. Rates from Shanghai to Singapore fell 3%, to $1,889 per 40ft, while those to Tanjung Pelepas declined 2%, to $2,053 per 40ft.
Adding capacity to the Straits–Indonesia trade, Pacific International Lines (PIL) is scheduled to launch its new JKS service today. The fortnightly service will deploy two vessels of between 1,900 and 2,600 teu, calling at Singapore, Laem Chabang and Jakarta.