Galaxy Futures: Maersk's opening container price lowered by $100, Iran situation remains unresolved

K-LinePoet · 2026-03-15T20:12:57+00:00

MSC and MSK lowered spot freight rates, impacting the market with downward volatility and entering a low season for shipping rates. Post-holiday demand is gradually declining, supply pressure is increasing, and shipping rates are expected to remain depressed through February-April. Geopolitical risks remain a concern, with potential impacts on future shipments.

K-LinePoet

2026-03-15 20:12:57

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MSC and MSK have lowered spot freight rates, causing the market to fluctuate downward. Regarding spot rates, after the holiday, freight prices entered the traditional off-season. MSK WK11 Shanghai–Rotterdam quotes are $1,900 per 40HC, down $100 week-on-week; other ports are quoted at $2,000. HPL February online rates have dropped to around $1,835, with March announced to rise to $3,100; OA in the first half of March generally announced increases above $3,000 per FEU, including OOCL’s online quote of $3,100 in early March, COSCO’s announced increase to $3,100, CMA’s online rate in the first half of February dropped to around $2,300 and announced to rise to $3,100 in March, Evergreen’s first half of March report was around $3,000 but later decreased to around $2,400; YML in February offline around $2,000; MSC announced a rise to $3,000 per FEU in early March but yesterday lowered to around $2,100.

From the fundamentals perspective, demand has gradually peaked and entered a decline phase. On the supply side, as of February 23, 2026, the weekly average shipping capacity for the Shanghai–Nordic 5 ports in February, March, and April was 228,400 TEU, 266,000 TEU, and 283,100 TEU respectively, with significant capacity pressure in the latter half of March. Traditionally, freight rates from February to April are in the off-season. Since the implementation of the export tax rebate policy was canceled starting April 1, most Chinese goods are not seeing the expected increase in freight demand, but the 10% new US tariffs make China’s tariffs lower than the previous IEEPA tariffs, so the impact on shipping volume remains to be seen.

Geopolitically, the situation remains volatile. It is still difficult for the European route to resume large-scale operations in the first half of the year. The Iran situation risk has not been resolved, and attention should be paid to US-Iran negotiations and Middle Eastern military deployments. (Galaxy Futures)

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