Shipping companies have successively announced that they will stop raising prices, but freight forwarders and cargo owners are not buying it!

Since the beginning of this year, global container shipping costs have skyrocketed. When the shipping industry can return to normal is unknown to everyone. However, this situation may usher in a turnaround in the near future.

On September 9, shipping giant CMA CGM took the lead in announcing a global suspension of spot freight rate increases. The regulation will take effect from September 9 and end on February 1, 2022.

CMA CGM said: “Since the beginning of 2021, container shipping spot freight rates have continued to rise due to port congestion and a serious imbalance between demand and effective shipping container capacity.”

“While these market-driven freight rates are expected to continue to rise in the coming months, the Group has decided to suspend further spot freight rate increases on all services operated by its brands CMA CGM, CNC, Containerships, Mercosul, ANL.”

According to foreign media reports, after CMA CGM announced an increase in spot freight rates, Hapag-Lloyd also announced that it would set a cap on spot freight rates for containerized cargoes.

Hapag-Lloyd said it had not raised rates further for several weeks. "We believe spot rates have peaked and we will not raise them further," the company said, adding: "We hope the market will slowly start to calm down."

However, Hapag-Lloyd did not announce the time to stop raising prices, but only said that the measure was "temporarily effective". In addition, according to Jiemian News, Maersk and ONE Ocean Network Shipping have also successively stated that they will not increase spot freight prices in the next few months. Five of the world's top 10 shipping companies have followed the policy of not raising freight prices.

However, many freight forwarders and shippers are not convinced by the shipping companies' announcements to stop raising spot freight rates. One freight forwarder believes that this is just a marketing strategy. Shipping companies first collectively raised freight rates, and then announced a halt to price increases after making huge profits, trying to play the role of "good guys."

According to the financial reports of major shipping companies in the first half of the year, the vast majority of shipping companies have either turned losses into profits or achieved a profit growth of dozens or even hundreds of times in the first half of this year.

Some freight forwarders also speculated that this was because many shippers canceled their orders and shipping companies' orders declined, which led to the announcement of a halt to price increases.

Regardless of the reason, it is a good thing that the shipping company announced that it would stop raising prices. Will more companies announce that they would stop raising prices in the future?

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