Platts proposes to launch North Asia-South America container box rates, PBX assessments

S&P Global Platts proposes to launch four new daily spot container freight box rate assessments and four associated bunker excluded (PBX) container rates for the growing North Asia-to-East Coast South America and North Asia-to-West Coast South America trade lanes, from Sept. 1, 2021, to complement its existing suite of Platts Bunker Charge (PBC) assessments on these routes.

Trade flow between the two regions has seen steady year-on-year growth as South American economies grow and increase their import and export activity. Container shipments from North Asia to West Coast South America grew by just over 100,000 TEU to nearly 2.15 million TEU in the six months to July 2021, compared with the same period in 2019, according to data from cFlow, Platts trade-flow software. Meanwhile, container shipments from North Asia to East Coast South America jumped by 185,000 TEU over the same period, to just under 1 million TEU. The proposed container rate assessments would reflect the transactable value at 13:30 Houston time, for transporting 40-foot equivalent, or FEU, containers on those front haul and backhaul routes, for loading five to 25 days forward from the date of publication.

The proposed PBX assessments would reflect the latter, excluding the cost of bunker fuel. They would be calculated by subtracting the value of the existing Platts Bunker Charge assessments Platts publishes on these routes from the respective proposed container box rate assessments.

The proposed assessments are:

Headhaul

PCR29 North Asia WC South America

PCR31 North Asia EC South America

PBX29 North Asia WC South America

PBX31 North Asia EC South America

Backhaul

PCR30 WC South America North Asia

PCR32 EC South America North Asia

PBX30 WC South America North Asia

PBX32 EC South America North Asia

The assessments would be published in $/FEU and would follow the Houston publishing schedule.

Platts assesses key shipping regions under the following broad geographic descriptions:

North Asia: Tokyo to Hong Kong

East Coast South America: Atlantic Coast including Argentina

West Coast South America: Pacific Coast from Chile to Colombia

Please send all feedback, comments or questions by July 30, 2021, to shipping@spglobal.com, containers@spglobal.com, and pricegroup@spglobal.com. For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.