Editing Container ship (section)

===Freight market===
The act of hiring a ship to carry cargo is called chartering. Outside special [[bulk cargo]] markets, ships are hired by three types of [[Chartering (shipping)|charter]] agreements: the [[voyage charter]], the time charter, and the [[bareboat charter]].<ref name="aramess233">Aragon & Messer, 2001, p. 233.</ref>  In a voyage charter, the charterer rents the vessel from the loading port to the discharge port.<ref name="hub212">Huber 2001, p. 212.</ref>  In a time charter, the vessel is hired for a set period of time, to perform voyages as the charterer directs.<ref name="hub212"/>  In a bareboat charter, the charterer acts as the ship's operator and manager, taking on responsibilities such as providing the crew and maintaining the vessel.<ref name="hub2123">Huber 2001, pp. 212–213.</ref>  The completed chartering contract is known as a [[charter party]].<ref name="hub213">Huber 2001, p. 213.</ref>

The [[United Nations Conference on Trade and Development]] [UNCTAD], tracks in its 2010 ''Review of Maritime Trade''  two aspects of container shipping prices:<ref name="unctad8589">UNCTAD, 2010, pp. 85–89.</ref> The first one is a chartering price, specifically the price to time-charter a 1 TEU slot for 14 tonnes of cargo on a container ship.<ref name="unctad85"/>  The other is the [[freight rate]]; or comprehensive daily cost to deliver one-TEU worth of cargo on a given route.<ref name="unctad85"/><ref name="hub225">Huber 2001, p. 225.</ref>  As a result of the [[late-2000s recession]], both indicators showed sharp drops during 2008–2009, and have shown signs of stabilization since 2010.

UNCTAD uses the [[Hamburg Shipbrokers' Association]] (formally the ''Vereinigung Hamburger Schiffsmakler und Schiffsagenten [[Eingetragener Verein|e. V.]]'' or VHSS for short) as its main industry source for container ship freight prices.<ref name="unctad85"/>  The VHSS maintains a few indices of container ship charter prices.  The oldest, which dates back to 1998, is called the ''Hamburg Index''.<ref name="unctad85"/>  This index considers time-charters on fully cellular container ships controlled by Hamburg brokers.<ref name="unctad85"/>  It is limited to charters of 3 months or more, and presented as the average daily cost in U.S. dollars for a one-TEU slot with a weight of 14 tonnes.<ref name="unctad85"/>  The Hamburg Index data is divided into ten categories based primarily on vessel carrying capacity.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Two additional categories exist for small vessels of under 500 TEU that carry their own cargo cranes.<ref name="unctad85"/>  In 2007, VHSS started another index, the ''New ConTex'' which tracks similar data obtained from an international group of shipbrokers.<ref name="unctad85"/>

The Hamburg Index shows some clear trends in recent chartering markets.  First, rates were generally increasing from 2000 to 2005.  From 2005 to 2008, rates slowly decreased, and in mid-2008 began a "dramatic decline" of approximately 75%, which lasted until rates stabilized in April 2009.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Rates have ranged from $2.70 to $35.40 in this period, with prices generally lower on larger ships.  The most resilient sized vessel in this time period were those from 200 to 300 TEU, a fact that the United Nations Council on Trade and Development attributes to lack of competition in this sector.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Overall, in 2010, these rates rebounded somewhat, but remained at approximately half of their 2008 values.<ref name="unctad85"/>  As of 2011, the index shows signs of recovery for container shipping, and combined with increases in global capacity, indicates a positive outlook for the sector in the near future.<ref name="unctad85"/>

{| class="wikitable" 
|- 
|+ 2008–2009 freight rates in 1000 US$/TEU<ref name="unctad88">UNCTAD, 2010, p. 88.</ref>
|- 
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | From
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | To
! scope="col" colspan="4" | 2008
! scope="col" colspan="4" | 2009
|- 
! Q1
! Q2
! Q3
! Q4
! Q1
! Q2
! Q3
! Q4
|-
|Asia
|U.S.
|1.8
|1.8
|1.9
|1.9
|1.7
|1.4
|1.2
|1.3
|-
|U.S.
|Asia
|0.8
|1.0
|1.2
|1.2
|0.9
|0.8
|0.8
|0.9
|-
|Europe
|Asia
|1.0
|1.1
|1.1
|1.1
|0.9
|0.7
|0.8
|0.9
|-
|Asia
|Europe
|2.0
|1.9
|1.8
|1.6
|1.0
|0.9
|1.0
|1.4
|-
|U.S.
|Europe
|1.3
|1.4
|1.6
|1.7
|1.5
|1.4
|1.4
|1.5
|-
|Europe
|U.S.
|1.6
|1.6
|1.6
|1.6
|1.3
|1.2
|1.1
|1.3
|-
|}
[[File:Container-ship-rates.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Year-average daily charter rates for a 1-TEU (14-tonne) slot have varied from $2.70 to $35.40 between 2000 and 2010.]]
UNCTAD also tracks container [[freight rate]]s.  Freight rates are expressed as the total price in U.S. dollars for a shipper to transport one TEU worth of cargo along a given route.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Data is given for the three main container liner routes: U.S.-Asia, U.S.-Europe, and Europe-Asia.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Prices are typically different between the two legs of a voyage, for example the Asia-U.S. rates have been significantly higher than the return U.S.-Asia rates in recent years.<ref name="unctad85"/>  Generally, from the fourth quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2009, both the volume of container cargo and freight rates have dropped sharply.<ref name="unctad85"/> In 2009, the freight rates on the U.S.–Europe route were sturdiest, while the Asia-U.S. route fell the most.<ref name="unctad85"/>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Container freight markets and rates<ref>{{cite web |url= http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/rmt2015_en.pdf |title= Table 3.1. Container freight markets and rates |work= Review of Maritime Transport |publisher= United Nations conference on trade and development |date= 14 October 2015 |page= 58}}</ref>
! $ per TEU from Shanghai to !! 2009 !! 2010 !! 2011 !! 2012 !! 2013 !! 2014
|-
| United States West Coast
| 1372 || 2308 || 1667 || 2287 || 2033 || 1970
|-
| United States East Coast
| 2367 || 3499 || 3008 || 3416 || 3290 || 3720
|-
| Northern Europe
| 1395 || 1789 || 881 || 1353 || 1084 || 1161
|-
| Mediterranean
| 1397 || 1739 || 973 || 1336 || 1151 || 1253
|-
| South America (Santos)
| 2429 || 2236 || 1483 || 1771 || 1380 || 1103
|-
| South Africa (Durban)
| 1495 || 1481 || 991 || 1047 || 805 || 760
|-
| Singapore
|  || 318 || 210 || 256 || 231 || 233
|-
| East Japan
|  || 316 || 337 || 345 || 346 || 273
|}

Liner companies responded to their overcapacity in several ways.  For example, in early 2009, some container lines dropped their freight rates to zero on the Asia-Europe route, charging shippers only a surcharge to cover operating costs.<ref name="unctad85"/>  They decreased their overcapacity by lowering the ships' speed (a strategy called "[[slow steaming]]") and by laying up ships.<ref name="unctad85"/> Slow steaming increased the length of the Europe-Asia routes to a record high of over 40 days.<ref name="unctad85"/> Another strategy used by some companies was to manipulate the market by publishing notices of rate increases in the press, and when "a notice had been issued by one carrier, other carriers followed suit".<ref name="unctad89">UNCTAD, 2010, p. 89.</ref>

The [[Trans-Siberian Railroad]] (TSR) has recently become a more viable alternative to container ships on the Asia-Europe route.<ref name="unctad89"/>  This railroad can typically deliver containers in 1/3 to 1/2 of the time of a sea voyage, and in late 2009 announced a 20% reduction in its container shipping rates.<ref name="unctad89"/>  With its 2009 rate schedule, the TSR will transport a forty-foot container to Poland from Yokohama for $2,820, or from Pusan for $2,154.<ref name="unctad89"/>