The ocean carrier is determined to keep the container spot freight rate at a high level for as long as possible, hoping to lock in annual contract customers at a rate of 100% or higher.

Those cargo owners who hope that the freight rate can be adjusted after the Spring Festival, now have to bite the bullet and agree to a higher contract price instead of continuing to risk in the spot market.

Although there is a shortage of transportation due to the quarantine of domestic tow truck drivers before the Spring Festival, the transportation company obviously still has a large amount of previous backlogs to clean up before starting to chase orders.

A British freight forwarder recently stated indignantly that the "2M" alliance cancelled the MSC Erica's Sunday sailing plan at the last minute, "it is more to keep the capacity tight, not to improve the reliability of the shipping schedule."

In addition, according to FBX data, spot prices from Asia to Eastern Mediterranean ports rose by 3% this week to $7,893 per 40 feet, a 270% increase from 12 months ago. On February 19, the single-day freight rate reached US$7,969.

FBX said that after several weeks of stagnation, the spot freight rate from Asia to the West Coast of the United States set a new record of $4,654 per 40 feet last week, an increase of 7% from the previous week. On February 19, the single-day freight rate reached a record high of US$4,709.
After a brief decline, East Coast ports also began to rebound, reaching USD 5,703 per 40 feet (week) in the past week – an increase of 8.0% from the previous week; on February 19, the single-day freight rate reached USD 5,960.

"Continued peaks and congestion have caused some US retailers to worry that Easter-related goods will not arrive in time, and shipping companies report that all ships are fully booked by the end of the month," said Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos.