The price of exporting containers from Europe to Asia fell two index points in December, while prices in the opposite direction fell even further, according to December’s monthly figures from Container Trade Statistics.

In volume terms, however, every European trade saw an increase compared with one year earlier.

The CTS aggregated price index, based on the weighted average of dry and reefer sea freight rates, has been at or below its starting point (January 2008=100) for most of the intervening period and currently sits at 75 for European exports to Asia and 64 for imports.

On other routes , the price index of European exports to South and Central America fell three points to 91 while exports to the Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East gained one point to 82. The Europe to North America trade also gained one point to 89.

The price index of imports to Europe generally fell or remained steady in December.

All bar one European export trades enjoyed monthly volume growth in December. The exception was the South and Central American route which contracted by 5%.

Year on year, however, all European export trades expanded.

Traffic to Asia grew 1.8% on the previous month and 7.5% on a year ago while exports to the Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East grew 13.6% over November and 14.9% over the same period in 2010.

Exports from Europe to North America grew 1.7% month on month and 5.7% year on year.

The picture was more mixed for import trades to Europe.

Imports from Asia increased by 16% month on month but were only marginally up year on year at 0.8%. Imports from India Sub-Continent / Middle East grew substantially month on month by 19.5% and 6% year on year.

Imports from South and Central America declined slightly by 0.7% month on month but expanded year on year by 5.2% while imports from North America were down by 1.9 % on the previous month and down 4.2 % on a year ago.

Source: http://www.ifw-net.com