Ship it!
If you’ve been planning on moving continents — and shipping all of your possessions with you — now is the time, as container shipment prices from China to the US and Northern Europe have fallen by ~90% since the start of 2022.
Major freight companies have been forced to cancel voyages as consumers shift their spending towards services rather than splurging on bulky furniture or appliances as they did during the pandemic, when shipping a 40-foot container from China to the US West Coast cost over $20,000. Today, according to data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, as reported by the WSJ, the figure is closer to $3,000.
Freight rates
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the shipping industry, as approximately 95% of the world’s manufactured goods are moved by container ships. With rates tumbling since 2022, the Fed was already acknowledging the “freight recession” in May, and things have only worsened since for shipping giants like AP Moller-Maersk, with no sign of the usual late summer surge when retailers like Amazon and Walmart typically stock up ahead of the year-end shopping spree.
