The growth trend in the price of freight rates for the transport of containers by sea already highlighted since November 2020 continues to rise, as we talked about in this article.
Although the European shippers and freight forwarders raised alarm over expensive container freight rates, the higher freight rates, the raise in the prices and blank sailing have now become a normal occurrence. A consolidation of this current situation is expected.
Even before the start of the pandemic, there was a constant increase in freight rates, coinciding with the introduction by carriers of blank sailing (a sailing that has been canceled by the carrier), with obvious effects on the transport of goods.
Experts view is that container freight rates probably reaching their peak after the Chinese New Year - Friday, 12 February -. They will then begin to decline, but will still remain at high levels and always far from those of 2019. The future prospects shows a settling of the higher freight rates, while a drop in the price of container freight remains a distant possibility.
