Russbroker Caribbean Market Review

Record rates not seen for over a decade!

Container Market

The year 2020 ended with phenomenal charter rate increases and reached record levels not seen since 2008. The “Contex” for example went from a low of 308 points in June to a high of 720 points by very early January 2021. This marks the highest value since the global financial crisis in 2008 and passes the previous “post-Lehmann” high of 600 points in 2010.

This development was driven by several factors. First of all, transportation demand rebounded sharply as warehouses had been run empty by early summer and restocking was needed. As a consequence, freight rates between Asia and the United States rose strongly. Additionally, a big imbalance in imports and exports absorbed a lot of containers into the United States and the consequent shortage in equipment further drove freight rates up. Latin America also contributed to the imbalance in containers as during the first nine months of 2020 the number of imported TEUs shrank by 11% while exports remained just above 0%. Higher freight rates in turn led operators to change services and deploy extra loaders in order to maximize the share of high-paying freight.

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