Attention! Starting from April, FBA freight rates will rise again! Major shipping companies have begun to adjust freight rates and various surcharges...

After reducing the GRI (General Rate Increase Surcharge) in September last year under the influence of regulators, trans-Pacific shipping companies are now preparing to introduce another fare increase next month .

For example, from April 1, Hapag-Lloyd recommends a GRI of $1,200/40' container from Asia to the United States and Canada .

Other transpacific carriers typically use a one-month GRI and PSS in the off-season when prices come under pressure.

Meanwhile, although demand on the Asia-Europe route has slowed in the past few weeks, there are no signs of a sharp drop in spot freight rates.

Instead, market expectations are for a “small correction” in inflation from the 450% seen since the second half of 2020 .

On both sides of the Atlantic, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd are preparing to increase freight rates from North Europe to the United States by $1,000/40' container from April 1 .

This traditionally stable trade route typically adjusts by less than $100 in a year.

On the backhaul routes, shipping lines will also increase a range of freight rates and PSS on April 1. For example, CMA CGM's PSS per container shipped from North Europe to Asia increased by $250.

Since October last year, spot prices for the return haul from North Europe to Asia have almost doubled to around $1,600 per 40' container .

This has exacerbated exporters’ woes, with one UK-based freight forwarder telling The Loadstar this week he had been notified of price increases on all his export trade.

" Every one of our export routes is more expensive than it was six months ago, some by a large margin, " he said.

And shippers may have to adapt to higher freight rates in the months and even years ahead, upending the cyclical pattern that has defined the liner industry for the past decade.

NYSHEX executives Bryan Most, a former Walmart executive, and Don Davis, a former Hapag-Lloyd executive, believe the rate changes on multiple trade lanes are likely to “continue.”

In fact, the current higher and higher ship rental prices inevitably lead to an increase in freight rates. The current container ship rental rate has reached the highest level in 16 years.

Recently, Maersk has booked three 4,600 teu old Panamax ships at an astonishingly high price of $35,000 per day.

They are: "Northern Priority", "Northern Promotion" and "Northern Precision" built in 2009-2010.

And the lease period is as long as 24-27 months.

Alphaliner pointed out that the last time the daily rent of Panamax container ships reached this level was around 2005. Five years ago, the daily rent barely reached $5,000.

Many industry veterans, drawing on their decades of experience as shippers/carriers, believe that this round of structural changes in the liner industry will intensify and deepen, and that high freight rates will be the new normal .