Despite a 20% decline in shipping volumes, freight forwarders are offering rates as low as $1 for backhaul routes from East Asia.

One forwarder quoted 7 for a 40ft high-cube container, while another offered a rate of "just 7 for a 40fthigh−cubecontainer, whileanotherofferedarateof "just 1." The forwarder explained, "Carriers are barely scraping by on still-moderate westbound rates, but on eastbound routes, they have space they simply can’t fill—some are even offering slots for 1. You have to add surcharges like emissions trading, but the total still ends up under

1.Youhavetoaddsurchargeslikeemissionstrading,butthetotalstillendsupunder50."

Even so, this stands in stark contrast to Drewry’s latest World Container Index (WCI) published on March 21, which showed the Europe-East Asia average rate at $484 per 40ft container.

With the latest WCI reflecting a 41% year-on-year drop in global container rates, the question remains: Are these 1 and

1and7 quotes anomalies, or signs of a new market trend? The answer is yet to be seen.

Additionally, data from Container Trade Statistics reveals that demand on the Europe-East Asia route in January fell sharply by 19.2% year-on-year, dropping to 424,200 TEU.

Looking back to 2023, January’s volume was around 475,000 TEU, but monthly figures later fluctuated between 505,078 TEU in August and 582,222 TEU in October, suggesting that the demand downturn began emerging toward the end of 2023.