International Container Shipping Costs – 2022 Rates
To begin with, the costs of international freight movements – whether you are talking about containerised shipments or not – vary a great deal. Local issues, such as the lack of availability of certain sizes of containers can push prices up. There again, road haulage of containers can be cheaper in some countries compared to others, usually down to how much fuel duty needs to be paid in a given locality. As such, this guide to international container shipping costs should be seen as a guide only. It will depend on the weight and the bulk of your consignment – as well as where it is going from and to – that will determine the true price.
Given that there are so many variables in the international container shipping sector, getting the best price for a commercial consignment, whether you are importing or exporting, is never easy. You might obtain a better price than the last time you shipped goods internationally but this won’t necessarily reflect the optimal pricing you could have obtained with more insider knowledge. Of course, this is exactly what the experienced operations team at Barrington Freight provide. Our ability to strike local deals with our global network of logistics partners means our customers can save huge sums on international container shipping rates.
That said, what are the prices you can expect to pay today for international shipping and what do the medium-term trends look like? Read on to find out.
2022 Trends in Container Shipping Prices
Although international containerised shipping is a global industry, prices tend to be benchmarked in US dollars. The good news is that, according to one leading global index of container shipping prices, the cost of shipping with 40ft containers is steadily dropping. The pandemic left shipping companies with their containers in less than optimal locations and a lack of manpower to sort the situation out. However, since August 2021, average container shipping prices have fallen. The price you’d pay today is about a quarter less than this time last year when rates were near to their peak. Indeed, prices for 40ft containers have dropped for 21 consecutive weeks. Unless there is a global event that pushes prices back up, few think this trend won’t continue to make international container shipping increasingly affordable as time goes by.
Typical Prices for Container Shipments
Typically, a trans-Atlantic port-to-port service for a 40ft container will cost upwards of £4,000 to get a shipment to Montreal or New York, for instance. Shipping to continental Europe, say Le Havre or Amsterdam, from the UK, would cost about £2,100. Both these indicative prices fall dramatically for 20ft containers, however, and would be around £2,500 and £1,300 respectively. Even lower prices can be obtained with shared groupage rates. Shipping to Mumbai would set you back about £3,000 for a 20ft container nowadays, with a shipment of the same size to Shanghai not costing that much more. Containers to and from Hong Kong are a little dearer compared to Shanghai at the moment. Meanwhile, prices to and from the UAE stand at around £3,100 and £2,400 for 40ft and 20ft containers, respectively.
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