All importers will have seen a dramatic reduction in base freight rates during 2008. This has been due to new tonnage being introduced at the same time as the global slow down.

As expected, shipping lines are now removing vessels from the Asia-Europe trade and reducing the number of services/loops offered.

Although this will have a little effect immediately, it will lead to an increase in freight rates in 2009 as utilisation of vessels gets back towards the 100% mark.