Valenciaport: the costs of maritime transport
The Port of Valencia measures the evolution of container transport costs by sea on a regular basis, establishing the containerised freight index (VCFI). In September, the indicator grew by 1.26% to almost 3,558 points, a growth of 255.79% since the beginning of the series in January 2018.
Current driving factors are international demand, shortage of supply, traffic congestion in certain geographical areas and an increase in fuel prices. Demand retains the same growing trend as in previous months, which is reflected in the port traffic data collected by the RWI/ISL container throughput index.
The strong boost in demand, especially in the US import trade, is influencing the global shipping market, requiring shipping lines to deploy all available capacity in the market, while idle fleet levels remain at historic lows.
According to Alphaliner’s data, the fleet idle for strictly commercial reasons represented 0.6% of the globally active fleet and dropped to less than 160,00 teu in mid-September. (sh)