Freight Investor Services

“Opaque” peak season for container shipping

Freight Investor Services’ head of air and containers Peter Stallion said in a Baltic Exchange commentary that heading into July, the outlook for container shipping is becoming more opaque.

The situation has been highlighted by unsuccessful attempts to raise Transpacific rates in the middle of record newbuilding deliveries, even as the third quarter is supposed to be the best period of the year for container shipping.

However, growing optimism about the Asia-Europe trade has seen futures continue...

https://container-news.com/opaque-peak-season-for-container-shipping/

Back to the futures: New era of container freight hedging begins

container shipping futures

What will happen next year, next month, next week? Rarely has the future direction of markets been as unknowable as it is today, so why take all the risk if you don’t have to?

Players in commodity and securities markets have long used derivatives to curb downside risk and hedge multimillion-dollar positions. But in container shipping, it’s been over a half-decade since participants have had the ability to use cleared, cash-settled futures to offset their risk.

That changed on Monday when futures...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/back-to-the-futures-new-era-of-container-freight-hedging-begins

Maersk forwarder clients left in limbo as carrier restricts them to Spot deals

Maersk’s forwarding and NVOCC customers are being targeted by competitor lines as the Danish carrier prepares to restrict their bookings to its online Maersk Spot platform next year.
Meanwhile, container spot rate indices, the bedrock for the Maersk platform, are bucking the usual slack season trend and holding steady at highly-elevated levels.
A UK-based NVOCC told The Loadstar this morning his Maersk rep had admitted he could no longer offer him a …

The post Maersk forwarder clients left in...

https://theloadstar.com/maersk-forwarder-clients-left-in-limbo-as-carrier-restricts-them-to-spot-deals/

‘Second coming’ for FFAs as protection against ocean freight rate volatility

Largely ignored by container shipping industry since their inception over a decade ago, container freight derivatives are finally seeing increased use as shippers and forwarders seek tools to protect themselves against freight rate volatility.
Derivatives, alternatively known as forward freight agreements (FFAs), have long been an established part of the dry bulk and tanker markets, but for many years remained unused in container shipping.
However, that has begun to change, the extraordinary …

Th...

https://theloadstar.com/second-coming-for-ffas-as-protection-against-ocean-freight-rate-volatility/

FIS Brokers First Panamax P8 Trade on NFX

Freight Investor Services, the global leader in freight and commodity derivatives, has concluded the first trade on the new Panamax P8 grains route on its first day of trading.

New route chartered

The new route, offering shipowners and grains market players on the key Brazil-China soybeans route, provides a complementary method of hedging to the existing Panamax P2A route.

The trade, for 5kt of June P8 between two Asian counterparts, was concluded at $33.00 and cleared on NFX.

“It’s great to see a...

http://mfame.guru/fis-brokers-first-panamax-p8-trade-on-nfx/