Xeneta: Rates up but concerns remain over recouping cost of IMO 2020

Concerns remain over the carriers’ abilities to recover the costs of compliance with the new IMO 2020 low-sulphur fuel regulations, despite the long-term contracted market experiencing a third consecutive month of increases according to Xeneta.

The analytics platform’s latest report showed that rates are up 8% year-on-year, with December’s 0.9% rise being consolidated by a 2.2% increase over the course of January.

Xeneta CEO Patrik Berglund stated that there is inconsistency across the board with the European import benchmark up 2.4% against last month and the export figure showing a marginal increase of 0.3%.