This year's rising freight rates make shippers and freight forwarders miserable. Just last week, the world's third-largest shipping company, CMA-CGM, announced that it would suspend all spot freight increases until February 1, 2022.

According to official sources, it said: "today, due to port congestion and container shortage, freight rates continue to rise."

"Although freight rates will continue to rise in the coming months, we have decided to suspend any increase in spot freight rates. We will now consider the long-term relationship with our customers."the director of CMA-CGM said.

However, this is not a good thing for the shipper. Although it is better to fix the freight at a price than not setting an upper limit, this fixed price is already a high position.

Moreover, all freight costs include not only the set basic freight, but also some unknown additional charges.

Following CMA-CGM, Herbert also said to suspend the rise

Herbert has also joined CMA-CGM since it announced last week to suspend the rise of spot freight.

It believes that the current shipping freight rate is about to reach the peak. We do not want the freight rate to continue to rise, but hope that the shipping market will slowly calm down.

Different from the cycle promised by CMA-CGM, Herbert said that the spot freight rate will temporarily stop rising. As for when, no explanation has been given.

So far, five of the world's top 10 shipping companies have implemented the policy of no price increase in freight.

It is worth noting that several shipping companies disclosed that they hope to establish a longer-term cooperative relationship with customers.

Maersk said: "we prefer to sign long-term contracts with customers. At present, this proportion has accounted for about 60% of the total orders."

However, some freight forwarders believe that this is a "marketing strategy". According to the financial report, Maersk's average freight rate increased by nearly 60%, while Herbert also increased by 45%.

Now, due to high freight rates, many foreign trade businesses have to give up orders or reduce production scale. If the current rising freight rate trend and demand ease, shipping companies may also face the possibility of excess capacity.