Drewry Shipping Consultants and Cleartrade Exchange plan to start their Europe-based container freight rate index in September.
Drewry and Cleartrade in early May announced plans for such an exchange, covering 11 trade routes. They have dubbed it the World Container Index "The index will provide a new and important facility for the global market to hedge their freight rate risk and see major improvements in forward price discovery through the container derivatives market," the companies said. "Significantly, the new index will be the first of its kind to report weekly freight rates on backhaul as well as head-haul routes, and will provide increased efficiencies in hedging strategies for freight users dealing in bulk, commoditized and recovered cargoes."
