CHINA-Australia rates are continuing their flight to new heights while those from South East Asia are repeating their week-on, week-off pattern — but still rising.
The mean SCFI Shanghai-Sydney rate for Week 38 has reached USD 5,510/FEU, up 4% on Week 37 — which itself was up 7%, for the second week in a row.
According to a notification seen by DCN, MSC is offering what it calls Diamond Tier rates of USD 8,600/FEU North & East Asia to East Coast Australia, USD 7,600/FEU NEA to West Coast, and USD 6,800/FEU South East Asia to Australia. These rates are valid for the second half of September.
On 7 September MSC notified of new service disruption surcharge (SDS) of a USD 500/TEU, effective today [15 September] applicable to all long-term cargo moving from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and South East Asia to Australia.
‘Long-term cargo’ is defined, according to a forwarder, as contract cargo which sometimes has clauses written in exempting the BCO from general rate increases and similar.
“That contract cargo level is as close as you can get to a guarantee that your cargo will be booked/shipped as per your request,” they said.
However, as happened with MSC’s last SDS in July, on 10 September the carrier announced it would be revised to USD 350/TEU - still applicable 15 September. In July the SDS was completely withdrawn.
While there would normally be some rate pause for Chinese Golden Week, and less pressure on space, the reality this year is that so many services have been blown of schedule by the succession of typhoons hitting East China, as well as Japan, Vietnam and more, that thousands of containers remain to be moved especially from Ningbo and Shanghai where delays remain at 10-11 days. Carriers are simply omitting these ports to try and keep some semblance of reliability.
Xeneta’s main ports South East Asia to main ports Australia index for Week 38 did not move — but last week jumped 12% to USD 4,474/FEU. Thus the recent pattern is repeating: little movement, followed by a jump, then no movement, then another solid rise.
Clearly ships are still sailing full on both Asian trades — it is peak import season, after all — and carriers look to be betting on demand continuing well into the fourth quarter if not year’s end.
The A3X and Maersk Qilin services are well through their first cycles and schedules show both continuing into December, although both services are suffering weather delays. Maersk has just notified Qilin schedule will be slid by one week, commencing with the Sydney call for the 2,741 TEU GSL Elizabeth 635S/637N with an indicative ETA of 19 September.
In the CA2 service, PIL has replaced two 4,250/4,335 TEU ships with the 8,084 TEU Kota Santos and 7,092 TEU Kota Tema. NEAX/NAX is introducing a seventh ship, the ONE-chartered, 7,883 TEU Navios Turquoise.
TS Lines has added a further two CA3 sailings, by the 1,908 TEU TS Osaka and the 2,954 TEU TS Mundra. ANL will have a de facto extra-loader when the ANZ Shuttle vessel ANL Tasman Trader (1,096 TEU) returns from repairs in China in mid-October.
In other notifications received recently:
ANL will be implementing a rate restoration program from 1st October 2026 at USD300 per 20’ dry/reefer & USD600 per 40’ dry/reefer for all shipment from South East Asia, Indian Sub-Continent & Middle East to Australia. This increase will apply on top of current Spot/FAK rates subject to all applicable surcharges valid on time of shipment.
ANL has also advised of the bunker adjustment factor for Pacific Islands slot trades effective 1 October, and new port dues for Napier, effective 10 October. Details are available on the carrier’s website.
CMA CGM is implementing an emergency space surcharge, effective 21 September, on all cargo from North Europe, Mediterranean & North Africa to Australia & New Zealand via Asia relay. It applies to dry, reefer and special equipment, at USD 250 per TEU dry / USD 400 per TEU reefer.
Hapag-Lloyd says that effective 1 October, all Dangerous Goods (DG) documentation for shipments originating from Australia and New Zealand must be submitted through the booking amendment tool in the customer portal. According to HL:
DG documentation submitted by email or through other channels will no longer be accepted.
What do you need to do?
Please use the Booking Amendment Tool to: Submit DG details; Update existing DG information; Change a shipment from Non-DG to DG
When submitting your request, select “Change DG Information” and upload all required supporting documents. These may include:
Please also provide a clear description of the requested amendment
Using the Booking Amendment Tool as the single submission channel will help reduce documentation errors and support timely DG confirmation updates, Hapag-Lloyd says.