Flat composite, split market: transpacific up, Asia–Europe down

Index levels assessed 3 September 2026. This is the weekly briefing as it was published — it is not updated afterwards. For the current position on your lanes, use the rate explorer.

The week in numbers

What moved, and why

• The composite held at $4,465 per 40ft because the two big corridors cancelled each other out.
• Shanghai–Genoa fell 10% in a single week and Shanghai–Rotterdam 5%, while Shanghai–Los Angeles rose 5% and Shanghai–New York 3%.
• The 1 September general rate increase held on both US coasts — the seventeenth on the East Asia to USA lane this year, against roughly six in a normal year.
• A run of typhoons since mid-July kept Chinese ports congested, tightening effective capacity on both corridors. Carriers omitted calls and rerouted through transhipment hubs, which protects schedules but displaces cargo.
• Six transpacific blank sailings were announced for the following week, double the week before.

What it meant for a quote

This was the week to stop quoting anything off a global composite. A customer waving an index at you had a 10% move on one corridor and a 5% move the other way on another, inside the same flat headline. Establish which index, which port pair and which basis before conceding a cent.