Shipping lines have had some success in their attempts to increase ocean freight rates on the Asia-Europe trade.

Over the past few months several shipping lines announced they would increase prices on 1 April because plummeting freight rates were making it hard to sustain service levels.

Keith Beresford, MD of freight forwarder Embassy Midlands, told IFW that on the eastbound Asia-Europe leg, box carriers had been trying to increase rates by around US$50 to $200 per teu.

But in reality they had secured increases of a lower amount. "Overall you are looking at a small increase – depending on the load point – of anything between $50 and $100."

"Westbound we haven''t seen any change in terms of rates but they [shipping lines] are trying and they aren''t trying by $50 – it''s more like $200 to $300."

Beresford said eastbound rate increases had been more successful than westbound because raw materials such as paper and metal – which are typically transported on the eastbound leg – would be needed in China before it could start to ramp up production, and therefore exports, on the westbound trade.

Purvinder Tesse, logistics director of Midlands-based for warder FCL UK, agreed that westbound rate increases had failed.

While this was mainly down to supply and demand, Tesse said it was also because the level of increase they had tried to impose was too high.

However, another forwarder IFW spoke to said that unless companies had agreements extending beyond 1 April, lines had succeeded in increasing rates, but not by as much as they would have liked.