Container Cancellations Jump to 11% Ahead of Golden Week

Drewry’s World Container Index finished at $4,476 per 40ft container in its September 10 assessment, $11 above the September 3 reading and stable for a second consecutive week. Underneath the composite, Shanghai to Los Angeles rose 2% to $7,352 and Shanghai to New York rose 1% to $9,726, while Shanghai to Genoa fell 3% to $4,216 and Shanghai to Rotterdam fell 2% to $3,997. The bigger move this week is in the schedule. Drewry’s Cancelled Sailings Tracker dated September 11 counts 79 of 721 planned sailings cancelled between September 14 and October 18, an 11% rate. If you have cargo booked for early October, that is where the exposure sits: fewer departures on the water, and a rolled booking waits longer for the next one.

This Week’s Rates

Route	Rate ($/FEU)	WoW	Index
Shanghai to New York	$9,726	+1%	Drewry WCI
Shanghai to Los Angeles	$7,352	+2%	Drewry WCI
Shanghai to Genoa	$4,216	-3%	Drewry WCI
Shanghai to Rotterdam	$3,997	-2%	Drewry WCI
WCI composite	$4,476	Flat	Drewry WCI
Asia to US East Coast	About $9,500	-3%	Freightos FBX03
Asia to US West Coast	About $7,600	-1%	Freightos FBX01
Asia to North Europe	About $4,500	-3%	Freightos FBX11
Asia to Mediterranean	About $4,700	-1%	Freightos FBX13

Drewry figures are the September 10, 2026 assessment. Freightos figures are the September 8, 2026 weekly update and describe the prior week. Rates are per 40ft container and exclude local charges and surcharges. The two indices assess on different days and different samples, so weekly readings will not always agree.

What’s Driving the Movement

Cancellations rose sharply on the same set of weeks. For weeks 38 to 41, announced blank sailings went from 39 to 70 in a single week. That is a like-for-like count on identical weeks, which makes it the cleanest read on how fast carriers are pulling capacity. Across the wider window, Drewry’s tracker dated September 11 counts 79 cancellations against 721 planned sailings for weeks 38 to 42, September 14 to October 18, an 11% rate with 89% of sailings still expected to operate. The tracker a week earlier covered weeks 37 to 41 and counted 47 cancellations against 729 planned sailings, a 6% rate. Drewry flags that further cancellations on China routes are possible before the holiday.

Carriers are tightening Asia-Europe capacity again. Drewry counts three Asia-Europe blank sailings announced for next week, up from one this week. Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean now accounts for 33% of all tracked cancellations, behind transpacific eastbound at 52% and ahead of the transatlantic at 15%. On the transpacific, announced blanks rise to eight next week from seven.

The Mediterranean premium has narrowed sharply. Shanghai to Genoa now prices $219 above Shanghai to Rotterdam, down from $276 a week earlier, and Rotterdam has slipped under $4,000 per FEU. Freightos reported on September 8 that Mediterranean prices had cooled to roughly level with North Europe, against an average premium of about 17% since 2017. It offers two possible drivers for the steeper Mediterranean decline rather than one confirmed cause: an increase in Red Sea transits on some Mediterranean services, and congestion at North European hubs holding those lanes up. Port worker strikes in Germany and the Netherlands are adding to the North European backlog.

Drewry and Freightos disagree on the transpacific direction. Drewry’s September 10 assessment has Shanghai to Los Angeles up 2% and Shanghai to New York up 1%. Freightos’s September 8 update, which covers the prior week, had Asia to US West Coast down 1% at about $7,600 per FEU and Asia to US East Coast down 3% at about $9,500, and read that cooling as a sign that further increases are unlikely in what is probably the last few weeks of peak season. Both indices put transpacific rates at similar levels while pointing opposite ways on direction. Drewry itself expects transpacific rates to remain stable next week.

Fuel and congestion are setting the floor. Freightos reports that bunker prices have climbed back to levels last seen in June following the July ceasefire collapse, running about 60% higher than before the war, and reads rising fuel costs as an elevated floor under container rates. Drewry reports that congestion at Shanghai port improved from 94 hours in week 35 to 64 hours in week 36 while remaining elevated. On the US East Coast routing, the Panama Canal Authority has postponed a 0.15-metre draft reduction for Neopanamax vessels, though transit restrictions stay in place.

How does Golden Week affect container shipping rates?

Golden Week is China’s National Day holiday, which runs October 1 to 7 in 2026. Factory output and export bookings slow around the holiday, and carriers respond by cancelling sailings in the surrounding weeks so that supply tracks the lower demand, which tends to keep spot rates from falling as fast as volumes do. This year’s schedules show the pattern. Maersk has blanked eastbound voyage 640E on its TP8 service from Busan and voyage 641E on its TP12 service from Ningbo, both with pro forma departures on October 9. Drewry’s tracker for September 14 to October 18 shows 11% of planned sailings cancelled, against 6% in the previous week’s tracker covering September 7 to October 11. Drewry’s outlook for both major trades is stable rates next week, with capacity management offsetting weaker demand. For shippers, the practical effect is fewer departures in early October, so cargo that misses a late-September sailing can wait longer for the next available vessel.

What This Means for Shippers

If you’re shipping transpacific, the rate question is close to settled for the moment. The two indices disagree on direction, neither points to a fresh climb, and Drewry expects stability next week. The October sailing gap is the larger exposure. Maersk has already blanked eastbound TP8 voyage 640E from Busan and TP12 voyage 641E from Ningbo, both due to depart October 9, and more blanks are being announced each week. Cargo that needs to reach US shelves for the holiday season should be on a confirmed late-September vessel. Any early-October booking needs checking against the carrier’s revised schedule this week, before the next tracker update adds more cancellations.

If Golden Week cancellations are forcing last-minute rebooking calls, walk through how ops teams watch schedule and space changes across carriers in one view.

If you’re shipping Asia to Europe, last week’s case for holding bookings back has weakened. Rates are still sliding, with Rotterdam under $4,000 and Genoa down 3%, but carriers have tripled next week’s blank sailings on the lane and Drewry now expects Asia-Europe rates to hold stable next week. Flexible cargo can still wait for a lower number, provided the saving covers thinner capacity around Golden Week and the North European backlog. With Mediterranean and North Europe quotes now close together, schedule fit can decide the routing.

Across both trades, the composite moved $11 between its last two assessments while the tracked cancellation rate went from 6% to 11%. Rate budgets built on current references look relatively stable for the immediate booking window, with Drewry expecting rates to hold next week. Transit-time assumptions for anything sailing between mid-September and mid-October need a buffer for rolled bookings.

What to Re-check This Week

Every early-October booking against the carrier’s current schedule, not the schedule that applied when you booked.
Whether your late-September vessel is still on its pro forma departure date.
Asia-Europe bookings and connecting legs, with three blank sailings announced for next week versus one this week.
Westbound return legs in November. Maersk has blanked TP8 voyage 644W from Los Angeles on November 1 and TP12 voyage 647W from Newark on November 18.
Mediterranean quotes against North Europe quotes, now within a few hundred dollars per FEU of each other.

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