Platts to launch West Coast India-Middle East container rate assessments Nov 1

S&P Global Platts will launch four daily spot container freight box rate assessments for the West Coast India-to-Middle East trade lane on Nov. 1, 2021, amid growing trade for products such as agriculture and petrochemicals on the fronthaul and backhaul routes.

Platts first proposed the launch of these assessments in a subscriber note published Sep. 16: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/091621-platts-proposes-to-launch-west-coast-india-middle-east-container-rate-assessments-nov-1.

The container rate assessments will reflect the transactable value at 1730 Singapore time (0930 GMT), for transporting 40-foot equivalent (FEU) and 20-foot equivalent (TEU) containers on the fronthaul and backhaul routes, for loading five to 25 days forward from the date of publication.

The assessments are:

The assessments will meet the growing demand for freight pricing information on the West Coast India-to-Middle East trade lane, and complement Platts' petrochemicals and agriculture assessments in these regions.

India's agriculture exports to the Middle East are expected to grow by 10%-15% in volume over the next two years from 1.47 million mt in 2020-21 (April-March), according to India's Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

On the backhaul Middle East-to-India route, petrochemicals are among the biggest product groups shipped in containers. India's polyolefin imports are expected to increase by an average 16% to 1.98 million mt from 2021 to 2023, with about 55% expected to come from the Middle East, according to Platts Analytics.

The assessments will be published in $/FEU and $/TEU and will follow the Singapore publishing schedule.

The assessments will reflect the following ports under their respective geographical regions:

India West Coast: Mundra, JNPT, Mumbai

Middle East: Jebel Ali, Salalah

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