• In the eighth month of the year, the VCFI stood at 1,968.09 points, up +7.2% on the previous month and accumulating a growth of +10.58% since the beginning of the year.
• According to the VCFI Commentary, the month of August was again marked by a significant increase in container traffic in Chinese ports.
• The Index shows an increase of +15.64% (with respect to the previous month) in the Western Mediterranean area and the Far East grows by +12.64%

 The Valencia Containerised Freight Index for the month of August is back on the growth path. This price index, which is based on the export prices recorded by the Port of Valencia in 13 geographical areas around the world, has reached 1,968.09 points, which represents a monthly growth of +7.2% and an accumulated growth since the beginning of the year of +10.58%.

The growth comes in a scenario in which the outlook for global trade remains highly uncertain, ‘factors such as rising geopolitical tensions, ongoing regional conflicts, monetary policy adjustments in advanced economies, and weakening export orders in certain areas continue to pose significant risks to the sustained recovery of world trade in the short and medium term’, according to the Commentary.

In this vein, the VCFI Commentary provides seasonally adjusted information on the RWI/ISL container throughput index which has shown ‘an increase in the latest reading, reaching 133.2 points compared to the previous month. This growth in the index is mainly due to a significant increase in container throughput in Chinese ports, while European ports saw a decrease after three consecutive months of growth’.

Geographical areas

The change in the value of the index in August (+7.2%) is unevenly distributed over the time horizon of the data as well as across the geographical areas that make up the index. In this sense, the Western Mediterranean sub-index has experienced a growth of +15.64% with respect to the previous month, standing at 2,138.51 points. For its part, in the Far East area, an increase of +12.64% has been recorded, reaching 2,207.39 points.