Drewry, and Singapore's Cleartrade launch container rate index

DREWRY Shipping Consultants and a Singapore-based start-up commodities market Cleartrade Exchange have launched the World Container Index (WCI), a weekly freight rate derivative index on physical and derivative markets on 11 individual routes to and from Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles and Rotterdam every week.


The WCI index will take from spot rates and short-term contract rates for TEU moves on both headhaul and backhaul routes. The index directly competes with the Shanghai Shipping Exchange's Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).


The Shanghai index is distrusted as a state-run "speculative tool" as it draws on a pool of small Chinese forwarders and does not accord with more widely used rates from time-charter agreements say some carriers.


"We will be covering both headhaul and backhaul routes, not just headhaul," Drewry, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce. "We will not just be covering tradelanes out of Shanghai. We will also be covering other routes, such as the transatlantic."


It will continue to publish its five-year old index of Hong Kong-LA container rate benchmark of FEU movement to help develop its new WCI assessed by Drewry.


London's Container Freight Derivatives Association has supported the development of the new WCI index which is "seen by the market to be fair, trustworthy and transparent" and "should bring new trading and hedging strategies along with increased liquidity to market participants wishing to manage their risk on a specific route and index," said association president Brian Nixon.


The two-year old Cleartrade Exchange is to partner 50:50 with publisher WCI Marketing Services.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)