Drewry’s World Container Index printed $4,339 per 40 ft container on 13 August 2026, up 1% on the week. The composite hides a split that matters if you are pricing equipment shipments this quarter: Transpacific lanes are climbing while Asia-Europe lanes are getting cheaper.
The route data from the 13 August assessment: Shanghai to New York rose 10% to $8,706 per FEU and Shanghai to Los Angeles rose 6% to $6,244. In the opposite direction of travel, Shanghai to Rotterdam fell 5% to $4,425 and Shanghai to Genoa fell 8% to $5,080. Drewry’s Intra-Asia Container Index rose 6% to $1,028 per FEU, a six-week high the analyst attributes to Middle East unrest tightening capacity and poor weather causing congestion across Chinese ports, with Shanghai to Jawaharlal Nehru Port up 33% to $2,353.
Translate that into machine terms. A mid-size telehandler in the 7 m to 14 m class typically ships one unit per 40 ft flat rack or open top, so the FEU spot rate is a workable proxy for your per-unit ocean cost before flat-rack surcharges. On the US East Coast lane, the weekly move added roughly $790 per unit. Against a $78,000 to $128,000 purchase price for a mainstream 6,000 to 10,000 lb machine, one week of rate movement is about 1% of machine cost. That is small next to tariff exposure but it compounds: the same lane has now risen for consecutive weeks, and a quote fixed at July rates no longer covers the carrier invoice.
European buyers are on the right side of the split. Rotterdam at $4,425 is the cheapest headline lane out of Shanghai in this print, and it fell while everything Pacific rose. If you are importing into Northern Europe, CIF quotes issued in June were priced off higher spot levels, so there is room to push suppliers for updated freight lines rather than accepting a stale pass-through. Genoa’s 8% drop matters for Mediterranean and North African routings for the same reason.
The third option keeps improving: rail. A 40 ft container from China to Europe via the Middle Corridor through Kazakhstan currently runs $2,500 to $3,250, which corridor operators state is 25% to 30% below baseline China-Europe rail tariffs. Volume is following the price. Rail freight across the Kazakh-Chinese border crossings hit 18.7 million tonnes in the first half of 2026, up 9% year on year. For buyers in Central Asia the comparison is not even close, and for Eastern European destinations rail now brackets the ocean spot rate with a shorter transit. The trade-offs are real: out-of-gauge machines need well wagons rather than standard platforms, booking capacity is thinner than ocean, and a single border congestion event can erase the transit advantage.
Three buyer groups should reprice now. US importers, especially East Coast, face the rising lane plus tariff stacking, so lock quote validity windows at 14 days or less and get freight quoted as a separate line item you can renegotiate. Northern European buyers should do the opposite and reopen freight lines on any pending CIF quote, because the spot market moved in your favor. Buyers in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the wider corridor region should get a rail quote alongside every ocean quote; at current tariffs the rail number will usually win on both cost and calendar.
Spot rates are one input, not the contract. If a supplier holds you to a June freight surcharge on a Rotterdam shipment, the 13 August print is your negotiating document.
## Sources
– [Drewry World Container Index, 13 August 2026](https://www.drewry.co.uk/supply-chain-advisors/supply-chain-expertise/world-container-index-assessed-by-drewry)
– [DCN, World Container Index 13 August 2026](https://www.thedcn.com.au/news/world-container-index-13-august-2026)
– [RailFreight.com, Kazakhstan-China Rail Freight Volume Up 9% in H1 2026](https://www.railfreight.com/railfreight/2026/07/20/kazakhstan-china-rail-freight-volume-up-by-9-in-h1-2026/)
– [EY Kazakhstan, Trans-Caspian International Transport Route](https://www.ey.com/en_kz/insights/strategy-transactions/trans-caspian-international-transport-route)
– [DDPChain, Rail Freight From China 2026](https://ddpchain.com/rail-freight-from-china/)