Average spot rates on the trade fell for the seventh week in a row.

Average spot rates on the Asia-Europe trade slipped this week for the seventh week in a row, threatening to erode the series of four big general rate increases that carriers have been able to nail down on that trade since the beginning of the year.

The World Container Index of spot prices in the trade from Shanghai to Rotterdam, which is compiled by Drewry and the Cleartrade Exchange in Singapore, dropped by $16 (-0.5 percent) this week to $3,112 per laden 40-foot container from $3,128 on June 21.

This week’s WCI shows a drop of 19.8 percent in the last seven weeks from the WCI of $3,878 per FEU on May 3 that followed carriers’ May 1 general rate increase of about $800 per FEU.

Carriers have returned almost half their idle capacity to global trade lanes in the last three months as a result of the four general rate increases they have secured so far this year, according to BIMCO.

Carriers had been able to hold onto most of the four large GRIs they put into effect since January, because they have kept vessel capacity relatively tight. This week’s WCI is still 153 percent higher than the WCI of $1,230 per FEU on Jan. 4, which reflects the carriers’ discipline in maintaining those rate increases until the last seven weeks.

The Journal of Commerce Online