The long-term sea freight contract rates for container carriers continued to decline in October 2019. The latest XSI (R) Index report, prepared by market expert Xeneta Container (Oslo, Norway), indicates a continued decline in contract freight rates.

Since the beginning of summer, tariffs on a number of key routes have continued to decline steadily, but have not yet fallen below the levels fixed a year ago or at the beginning of this year.

The XSI (Xeneta Shipping Index) index of the company, prepared on the basis of long-term contracts, fell another 2.2% in October this year to 110.74 points. However, this is still 1.5% higher than a year ago (end of October 2018) and 2.2% higher than at the beginning of this year.

Unique Xeneta indices use the latest industry shipping data, covering more than 160,000 port-to-port pairs and 110 million data points, providing an accurate picture of freight markets among container shipping lines.

According to Xeneta Executive Director Patrick Berglund, the next few months are likely to be crucial in the formation of contractual agreements for key linear container services, with a significant increase in the average freight rate for transporting assorted goods on container routes from the Far East to Northern Europe, and also on transit routes on November 1.