capped their freight prices.
French container line CMA CGM announced earlier this month that it had made the decision to stop all spot rate hikes until February 2022, effective immediately. “Although these market-driven rate increases are expected to continue in the coming months, the group has decided to put any further increases in spot freight rates on hold for all services operated under its brands,” it said in a statement.
The group added it is prioritising its long-term relationship with customers in the face of an “unprecedented situation” in the shipping industry.
Meanwhile German line Hapag-Lloyd has made a similar commitment to cap spot rates and freeze surcharge increases until “further notice”. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd tells GTR that the company started “a couple of weeks back with a cap of our spot rates. Overall, we hope that the market will start to calm down. Additionally, we gave ourselves an internal halt to new surcharges.”
It has been suggested by experts in the market that Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM will already have risen in the pipeline as any change is typically announced a month prior to implementation. “Both carriers will of course still implement quite a number of increases… CMA CGM have some 40 price and surcharge increases in the pipeline and Hapag Lloyd have some 45 still to take effect,” writes Lars Jensen, a shipping container specialist, on LinkedIn.
Even so, the action may put pressure on shipping rivals to do the same, particularly as companies are benefitting from the higher prices. Maersk, the world’s biggest container line, has lifted its financial outlook for the third quarter of this year because of the “exceptional market situation within ocean”, it said in a trading statement on September 16.
