Rates & Services from Asia to Australia/New Zealand:
Even though the market is generally quiet, we’re seeing significant rate increases across most trade lanes for August. This is a continuation of increases we have seen in July with the biggest changes to the Australia East Coast and New Zealand routes, while rates on the Australia West Coast have stayed fairly stable.
Some lines are still cancelling weekly services and only offering only one (1) sailing per fortnight from Chia/Taiwan/Korea/Japan to East Coast Australia ports, this is creating a false space demand as we enter the traditional Peak Season period. Space for sailings in the first week of August has been snapped up quickly, we suggest booking as early as possible to ensure a slot can be allocated for your shipment. Some of the vessels that were on the Asia-Australia were transferred to the Asia-USA trade to cater for the huge volume of traffic that was shipped in July to avoid the new USA tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration from 1st August, 2025.
We are regularly receiving notices of increased rates and more recently of Peak Season Surcharges notices that lines are planning to introduce from mid-August, the increments of the surcharges vary between lines but it is still yet to be seen if the surcharges will be implemented and accepted by the market.
Recent typhoons in several areas have resulted in delayed departures of many vessels, some sailings delayed by 5-7 days and this is now a common event. The recent earthquake off the Russia coast in the Pacific Ocean is also likely to impact vessel scheduling and transit times.
Port congestion in Singapore has been continuing to build up and is expected to continue for at least a month, an average of 10-14 days delay in transshipment is being encountered at present.
Overall, biweekly freight rate announcements should now be viewed as reference only. Shipping lines are adjusting rates in real-time based on cargo flow, with daily changes increasingly common.
New Direct Service announced to USA East Coast
MSC Line have announced they will introduce a new stand-alone direct service from Australia to East Coast ports in USA commencing early 2026. MSC and Maersk Line previously has a joint slot chartering arrangement on all trade lanes but MSC earlier in 2025 decided to end that alliance and to operate as an individual service globally, MSC Line are now the largest container line in the world.
It is hoped this new service will free up space for Australian/New Zealand exporters on an already busy trade lane.