Drewry’s World Container Index rose 1% in its 6 August assessment to US$4,297 per 40ft container, ending three consecutive weeks of decline. That number describes eight major East-West routes linking Asia, Europe and North America.
Three carrier notices landed in the same window, and none of them directly cover those eight routes. A desk that checked the index this morning to see whether its open quotes still hold got a clear answer about Shanghai to Los Angeles and no answer at all about the lanes where the money moved.
What the index actually moved on
The rebound came from the Transpacific. Shanghai to New York rose 4% to US$7,893 per 40ft container and Shanghai to Los Angeles rose 3% to US$5,894, as carriers landed general rate increases into August and congestion across central and southern China kept capacity tight.
Asia to Europe was comparatively stable in the same reading. Shanghai to Rotterdam held at US$4,653 and Shanghai to Genoa fell 2% to US$5,506. Drewry had eight blank sailings scheduled on the Transpacific for the coming week, unchanged from the week before, and expected rate volatility to ease.
Those are checkable moves. A quote on any of those lanes can be held up against a published weekly number and defended or repriced on the spot. That is the value of a benchmark, and it is exactly what the week’s carrier notices do not provide for the trades below.
The three notices that landed off the index
Hapag-Lloyd updated peak season surcharge levels on two trades and CMA CGM opened a rate restoration initiative on a third.
| Carrier | Origin scope | Destination | Instrument | Amount | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hapag-Lloyd | Asia and Oceania | Conakry, Guinea | PSS | US$1,750 per TEU dry, special and tank; US$2,250 per TEU reefer | Cargo loaded on board from 12 August 2026 |
| Hapag-Lloyd | North Europe | Mexico | PSS | US$500 per TEU, dry, reefer and special | Sailings commencing on or after 1 September 2026 |
| CMA CGM | Türkiye, Greece, Black Sea, Adriatic, Lebanon, Malta, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria | US East, Gulf and West Coast, plus inland points served through those ports | Rate Restoration Initiative | US$250 per 20ft; US$500 per 40ft, 40ft high-cube and 45ft | 1 September 2026 |
The direction of change is not the same across those notices. On the Conakry trade, Hapag-Lloyd’s previous PSS was US$2,000 per TEU across equipment types. The new dry, special and tank level is therefore US$250 lower at US$1,750 per TEU, while the US$2,250 reefer level had already taken effect in July and remains unchanged. The North Europe to Mexico notice, by contrast, introduces a US$500 per TEU PSS from September.
For North Europe to Mexico, Hapag-Lloyd also states that ocean tariff rates and bunker-related, security and terminal handling surcharges remain unchanged. The movement is being made through the PSS rather than those other charge lines.
The East Mediterranean to US corridor has repriced before without a weekly benchmark to check it against. CMA CGM introduced a separate increase from the East Mediterranean to the US East Coast effective 1 July, which we covered in June’s carrier-by-carrier surcharge breakdown. The September initiative creates another increase on the overlapping East Mediterranean-US East Coast trade, while extending across a broader origin and destination scope.
What the published benchmarks actually price
| Benchmark | Scope | Asia/Oceania to Conakry | North Europe to Mexico | East Med to US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drewry WCI | 8 major East-West routes linking Asia, Europe and North America | Not covered | Not covered | Not covered |
| Freightos FBX | 12 regional lane indices | Not covered | Not covered | Not covered |
| SCFI | 13 routes, all originating Shanghai | No direct coverage; nearest regional reference is Shanghai-West Africa | Not covered | Not covered |
The SCFI West Africa route is the closest any of the three comes. It is a Shanghai-origin reference for West Africa rather than a direct Shanghai-Conakry benchmark, and it says nothing about the Oceania half of Hapag-Lloyd’s origin scope. For North Europe to Mexico and for the East Mediterranean to the United States, there is no weekly published spot benchmark in this set at all.
Granular lane coverage does exist in paid products. Drewry’s Container Freight Rate Insight covers roughly 6,700 port pairs, updated monthly, with around 2,450 of those also updated fortnightly. Even that illustrates the timing problem: a less frequent benchmark may still lag a carrier surcharge taking effect within days.
The effective-date language decides what you need to check
The dollar amounts are the easy part of these notices. The harder question is what event determines whether a particular shipment falls on one side of the effective date or the other. The three notices do not express that rule in the same way.
Hapag-Lloyd to Conakry applies to cargo loaded on board from 12 August. The attachment point is explicit: the physical load-on-board date. A box booked or quoted earlier can therefore still fall under the stated level if it is loaded on or after that date.
Hapag-Lloyd to Mexico applies to sailings commencing on or after 1 September. That makes the relevant sailing date important, but the notice does not further define how “sailings commencing” should be applied to an individual booking. Check the applicable tariff or booking terms before treating an individual port departure or schedule delay as the deciding event.
CMA CGM from the East Mediterranean applies from 1 September to tariff or service contract rates for cargo within the announced scope. Contract cargo is expressly included, but the notice does not specify whether booking date, loading date, sailing date or another operational milestone determines attachment. That needs to be checked against the applicable tariff or service contract.
There is also a unit difference to catch before quoting. Hapag-Lloyd states both surcharges per TEU. CMA CGM states its restoration per container size, at US$250 per 20ft and US$500 per 40ft, 40ft high-cube and 45ft. Confirm with the carrier how the per-TEU figure applies to a 40ft box on your specific booking rather than assuming the conversion.
Different effective-date language means the question is no longer simply which lane changed. It is which shipment falls within the carrier’s stated scope, and what rule determines whether its movement sits before or after the effective date. If your team is cross-referencing carrier advisories against booking spreadsheets to work that out, walk through how ops teams tie each container’s milestone status in one view.
What to re-check before 12 August
- Open quotes to Conakry from any Asia or Oceania origin, checked against expected load-on-board date rather than booking date.
- Temperature-controlled quotes to Conakry, where the reefer level remains US$500 per TEU above the new dry, special and tank level.
- Bookings from North Europe to Mexico on sailings commencing on or after 1 September, with the applicable tariff or booking rule checked before deciding how schedule changes affect exposure.
- Service contract cargo moving from Türkiye, Greece, the Black Sea, the Adriatic, Lebanon, Malta, Syria, Tunisia, Libya or Algeria to any US coast or inland point served through those ports.
- Out-of-gauge shipments on the CMA CGM scope, which the notice excludes.
- Which of these lanes your desk has been benchmarking against an index, and what pricing reference you will use for them instead.
The index tells you what happened on its covered routes. Outside them, the carrier notice becomes the primary pricing reference — and the effective date only matters once you know what rule attaches that date to your shipment.
Need help interpreting this disruption or your shipment?
For a quick question, chat with Tradlinx on WhatsApp. For a deeper discussion, book a time below.
Prefer email? Contact us directly at min.so@tradlinx.com (Americas), sondre.lyndon@tradlinx.com (Europe), or henry.jo@tradlinx.com (EMEA/Asia).
Further Reading
- World Container Index, weekly assessment — Drewry Supply Chain Advisors
- World Container Index: Methodology and route composition — Drewry
- Drewry WCI rebounds after three-week decline — Container News
- Hapag-Lloyd updates PSS on several trades — Container News
- Hapag-Lloyd updates PSS to Conakry — Container News
- CMA CGM announces rate restoration initiative from the East Mediterranean to the US — Container News
- Shanghai Containerized Freight Index: route scope — Container News
- Freightos Baltic Index: covered trade lanes — Freightos
Rate figures are from Drewry’s World Container Index assessment dated 6 August 2026. Surcharge figures, scopes and effective dates are from Hapag-Lloyd notices dated 6 August 2026 and CMA CGM’s notice dated 7 August 2026, with additional reporting from Container News. Index route coverage is per each provider’s published methodology as of August 2026. Carrier tariffs are revised without notice and origin scopes vary by service. Confirm all amounts, container-size basis, applicability rules and effective dates against your own carrier tariff or service contract before quoting.
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