Container shipping rate benchmarks with market analysis: what moves rates, how a spot rate is built, and how the major lanes differ. Updated twice weekly. For the live rate on a specific port pair, search the Gateway Ocean Rates board.
Market commentary is refreshed regularly. See the corridor benchmarks above for the current read on each trade lane.
Shipping steady volume? Contracted rates hold a price across a committed period instead of moving with the spot market. What you save depends on the lane and the commitment, so talk to us about your volume.
Benchmarks show the market. These give you your number.
A spot rate is a snapshot of what the market will charge for the soonest sailing on a lane. It is not a fixed price, and it moves for reasons that are largely predictable. These are the forces that decide what you pay for a container.
Carriers add or withdraw sailings to match demand. When a service is suspended or ships are moved to another trade, the remaining space is bid up and spot rates rise within weeks. Capacity is the single biggest swing factor on any lane.
Bunker fuel is recovered through a Bunker Adjustment Factor that moves with oil prices and with low-sulphur fuel regulations. It is a pass-through, so it can lift an all-in rate even in a soft market.
Rates climb into the pre-holiday push from roughly August through October, and again ahead of Lunar New Year as factories race to ship before closing. Booking into those windows costs more and space gets tighter.
Canal transits, drought restrictions and security diversions change both transit time and cost. A rerouted service burns more fuel and more vessel days, and that shows up in the rate long before schedules recover.
Duty changes move sourcing, and sourcing moves freight demand. When duty rises sharply on one origin, volume shifts to another and the receiving lane tightens. Rates follow the cargo.
A rate is only real if there is a container where you need it. Empty repositioning after an imbalanced trade can make a nominally cheap lane expensive, or simply unbookable at the quoted number.
Quotes are not comparable unless you know what each one covers. An all-in port-to-port rate normally bundles these four components.
These are billed separately and are where landed cost usually surprises people.
Duty is the one most people underestimate. You can price it for your exact HTS code and origin with the Gateway tariff calculator.
Transit time, routing and capacity all differ by corridor, which is why one origin can move while another sits flat in the same week. Live pricing for every lane below is on the Gateway Ocean Rates board.
The shortest transpacific routing, typically around two weeks to Long Beach. It reacts fastest to capacity changes because the sailing cycle is short, so rate moves show up here before they reach the East Coast.
Longer routings via canal transit, commonly four weeks or more. Rates carry the extra vessel days and any canal restrictions, and they move more slowly because the cycle is longer.
A shorter, more stable corridor with different capacity dynamics from the transpacific trades. It usually prices well below Asia origins and moves on its own cycle.
The Gateway Ocean Rates board publishes current spot rates across thousands of port pairs, with the weekly trend on each one. Search your exact origin and destination instead of working from an average.
Common questions about ocean freight and container shipping rates
Ocean freight spot rates are current market prices for shipping containers on specific trade lanes. Unlike contract rates (locked for months), spot rates fluctuate based on supply, demand, fuel costs, and seasonal factors. They are updated regularly and represent real-time market conditions.
Gateway updates ocean freight spot rates twice weekly. This ensures you always see current market pricing for major trade lanes including China to Los Angeles, Shanghai to New York, and Asia to Europe routes.
Rates from China to the US West Coast move week to week with capacity, fuel and season, and East Coast routings price higher because the transit is longer via canal. Rather than quote a figure that goes stale, Gateway publishes the current corridor benchmarks on this page and the live per-lane rate on the Gateway Ocean Rates board.
Ocean freight rates are influenced by: fuel prices (bunker costs), container availability, port congestion, seasonal demand (peak season surcharges), geopolitical events (e.g., Red Sea disruptions), carrier capacity, and global trade volumes. Rates tend to peak August-October for Asia-USA routes.
Gateway offers contracted rates that hold a price across a committed period instead of moving with the spot market. What you save depends on the lane, the volume and the length of the commitment, so we quote it against your actual shipping pattern rather than a blanket percentage.
A 40ft costs more than a 20ft but nowhere near double, so the cost per cubic meter is lower. A 40ft High Cube holds 67.7 cubic meters against 33.2 for a 20ft, which is why volume cargo almost always ships cheaper in the larger box. The spread between the two sizes moves with the market, so compare both on the live board for your lane rather than working off a fixed percentage.