Container liner freight index based on data from e-booking platforms

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a framework for a daily container freight index (DCFI) and investigates a number of principles in the design of this type of indices. Based on a comparative analysis with the existing container freight indices, we explore a method of integrating the framework with the use of data from e-booking platforms and illustrate why the new index can provide more insightful information for shippers. We also apply the framework to have a daily Shanghai container freight index by combining data sources from the platforms linked to the Shanghai port. By implementing the index to a risk analysis problem, we use numerical results to show the DCFI’s potential position in real hedging problems for container liner markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Container liner market structure
• container freight index
• e-booking platform

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous referees for their insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. CY-CY: Container Yard to Container Yard, a kind service model that liners provide.

2. BAF – Bunker Adjustment Factor, EBS – Emergency Bunker Surcharge, CAF– Currency Adjustment Factor, PSS – Peak Season Surcharge, WRS – War Risk Surcharge, PCS – Port Congestion Surcharge, THC – Terminal Handling Charge, ORC – Original Receive Charge, AMS – Automatic Manifest System charge.

3. Data source: http://www.dayinghome.com/.

4. 20GP– the abbreviation of 20 ft general purpose container, 40GP– the abbreviation of 40 ft general purpose container, 40HQ– the abbreviation of 40 ft high cube container.

5. http://www.sse.net.cn/index/scfiintronew.jsp.

6. Data source: www.365wuliu.com.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported jointly by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71501127, 71632008].