There were signs of a silver lining finally beginning to appear for beleaguered US shippers this week, after the spot container freight rates to both the west and east coast showed a second week of declines on the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX).

Today’s FBX covering the China-US west coast route stood at $19,173 per 40ft, down from the $20,143 last week and the record high of $20,586 per 40ft on 10 September.

It was a similar picture on the China-US east coast leg, which today recorded a rate of $21,697 per 40ft, compared to $21,823 last week and the record high of $22,173 on 10 September.

Analysts at the Ningbo Containerised Freight Index suggested the declines could be due to a slight loosening of capacity in advance of Chinese National Day, which takes place on 1 October and lasts for three days.

“Some overtime ships were put into the market before the Chinese National Day. Therefore, the tightness of space was slightly eased compared with the previous period, and the market booking price dropped slightly,” the NCFI noted.

Despite the marginal decline in spot pricing, US importers are still reeling from unprecedented congestion levels, particularly on the west coast.

“Transpacific demand remains in high gear, and carriers continue to add capacity in response,” said Judah Levine, Freightos head of research.

“To do so when basically all of the globe’s container ships are already active, carriers are moving capacity from secondary lanes to the transpac, complicating things for shippers on those lower-profile routes.

“Unfortunately, that transpacific capacity is increasingly stuck waiting at US destinations like LA/Long Beach. Though the main West Coast gateway announced extended gate hours for trucks to collect containers and speed operations, a new record of more than 70 ships are currently waiting an average of nine days for a berth to open up.”