BETWEEN January and July 2023, Chinese ports witnessed a cargo volume of 9,617.1 million tons, marking an eight per cent year-on-year increase, reports Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide.

Concurrently, Chinese ports handled a container throughput of 176.2 million TEU, reflecting a 4.5 per cent year-on-year growth.

Regarding container freight rates, the average value of the Ningbo Container Freight Index (NCFI) for August stood at 735.4 points, representing a 8.2 per cent increase compared to the previous month.

In August, the North American market experienced a continuous rise in cargo volume, prompting carriers to maintain stringent capacity control measures.

During the first half of the month, these measures effectively pushed upmarket freight rates.

In the latter part of the month, as some shipping capacity returned to the market, there was a slight decline in market freight rates.

However, by month's end, freight rates from Ningbo Port to US East and US West routes had increased slightly compared to the end of July.

Specifically, in August, the average freight rate for a 40GP container from Ningbo Port to Los Angeles Port saw a month-on-month increase of 21.8 per cent, while the rate to New York & New Jersey Port rose 16.4 per cent.