The major influencing factors of international container 

freight rate are:

(1) Supply and demand. The supply and demand of the 

international container shipping market is the determinant 

of the freight rate. In general, a liner’s shipping order ratio 

for a voyage is a real-time measure of the supply and 

demand situation for that voyage, while the loading ratio 

after the voyage starts has a large impact on the liner’s 

pricing strategy.

(2) Costs. The level of costs has a remarkable impact 

on the freight rate. The main components of container 

shipping costs are fixed investment in vessels and 

containers, voyage operation cost, administrative 

expenses, and financial expenses.

(3) Global economy. The demand for international 

container shipping arises from global trade. Growth in 

global container capacity and growth in global trade are 

closely related. The international container freight rate is 

also strongly linked to the global economic environment.

(4) Exchange rate. Exchange rate fluctuations can have 

an impact on the cost control and profit calculation of liner 

companies, thus affecting their freight rate.

(5) Geopolitics. Past or future policies or major events 

that had or will have an impact on the global trade can 

trigger a short-term swing in the freight rate and even 

affect the long-term price trend.

(6) Other factors. Due to the diversity of goods and a 

long transport chain, the international container freight 

rate is impacted by many other factors, such as changes 

in upstream or downstream industries, weather, port 

strikes, anti-monopoly amendments, price negotiations for 

long-term supply agreements, alliance restructuring, and 

competition.

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