OFR Agency

China to US East Coast Ocean Container Spot Rates down to 2018 highs

There has been a lot of talk about China to West Coast ports taking the biggest hit with rates, and east coast ports hanging on to some of their pandemic gains, however, that is now gone too.

Container spot rates from China to US East Coast ports have held up better than China to West Coast ports up until recently.
Now back at 2018 highs for China to US East and demand continuing to remain suppressed with no shortage of capacity we can expect further rate.

Container shipping costs are back to pre-pandemic levels. Is inflation over?

Truckload Volumes are the health of the US Physical Goods Economy, they tell us what is happening up stream.

For the first time since June of 2020, Truckload Demand measured by the Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI) is below 11,000 points.

The dark Blue Line is YTD and is dropping more as we approach the halfway point in Q4. This further drop is the signal that the holiday rush simply isn't here this year.

Only 2019 OTVI (Orange Line) is higher than 2022 (Dark Blue line) and judging by the pace of the downward movement in 2022s OTVI path, it would suggest we will fall below 2019 levels.

@ Luke Falaska