How much does it cost to ship a container in 2026? On the world’s major East–West trades, there is no single answer. As of 3 September, a standard 40ft dry container from Shanghai to New York is benchmarked at $9,587, while Shanghai to Rotterdam is less than half that at $4,092.
Shanghai to Los Angeles stands at $7,185. Shanghai to Genoa is $4,368. Drewry’s global World Container Index is $4,465 per 40ft container.
The difference is not a rounding error. It is the story of the current container market: Transpacific capacity is being managed tightly enough to support rates, while Asia–Europe is seeing softer demand and more capacity returning to the trade.
And there is another important distinction. These figures are ocean spot-market benchmarks. They are not automatically the final invoice an importer pays to move a box from a factory door in China to a warehouse in New York, London or Athens.
CONTAINER SHIPPING RATES — 3 SEPTEMBER 2026
- Drewry WCI global composite: $4,465 / 40ft
- Shanghai → New York: $9,587 / 40ft
- Shanghai → Los Angeles: $7,185 / 40ft
- Shanghai → Rotterdam: $4,092 / 40ft
- Shanghai → Genoa: $4,368 / 40ft
Source: Drewry World Container Index. Rates are FAK spot-market benchmarks for standard 40ft dry containers and should not be treated as individual door-to-door quotations.
Current Container Shipping Rates in September 2026
The latest Drewry World Container Index shows a market that looks stable only when viewed from a distance.
The global composite held at $4,465 per 40ft container this week. Underneath that unchanged headline, the major routes moved in opposite directions.
| Route | 40ft spot rate | Weekly move |
|---|---|---|
| Shanghai → New York | $9,587 | +3% |
| Shanghai → Los Angeles | $7,185 | +5% |
| Shanghai → Genoa | $4,368 | −10% |
| Shanghai → Rotterdam | $4,092 | −5% |
| Drewry WCI composite | $4,465 | 0% |
The most striking comparison is Shanghai–New York versus Shanghai–Rotterdam. The New York benchmark is currently about $5,500 higher for the same 40ft container size.
That is why a global average can be misleading for a shipper. Freight is bought on a trade lane, not on a global average.
What Does a $9,587 Container Rate Actually Mean?
The $9,587 Shanghai–New York figure is not a carrier advertisement and it is not a theoretical asking price.
Under Drewry’s WCI methodology, the index is built from agreed spot freight rates reported by freight forwarders and NVOCCs moving cargo with major container lines.
The benchmark is expressed per FEU — one standard 40ft container — for Freight All Kinds dry cargo in standard equipment.
Drewry reports the rates on a container yard to container yard, or CY-to-CY, basis. Inland trucking is outside the index.
That distinction is essential.
$9,587 is a benchmark for the ocean container movement. It is not the same thing as the final landed cost of moving cargo from the seller’s factory to the buyer’s warehouse.
How Much Does It Cost to Ship a Container From China to the US?
For the two main US gateways covered by the current Drewry assessment, the answer differs sharply by coast.
Shanghai to Los Angeles: $7,185 per 40ft
The Shanghai–Los Angeles spot benchmark rose 5% this week to $7,185.
The US West Coast usually has a shorter ocean leg from Asia than the East Coast, but price is not determined by nautical miles alone. Carrier capacity decisions, port choice, inland networks, shipper demand and blank sailings all influence the market.
Shanghai to New York: $9,587 per 40ft
Shanghai–New York increased 3% to $9,587, putting the benchmark within a few hundred dollars of the psychologically important $10,000 level.
The East Coast rate is currently around 33% above Los Angeles.
A business importing ten 40ft containers at the benchmark level would therefore see an ocean-freight difference of roughly $24,000 between the two route benchmarks before any inland and destination-specific costs are considered.
That does not mean Los Angeles is automatically the cheaper supply-chain option. A consignee on the US East Coast may face additional rail or trucking cost, time and handling if cargo is discharged on the West Coast.
The correct comparison is not port-to-port freight alone. It is total landed logistics cost and reliability.
How Much Does It Cost to Ship a Container From China to Europe?
Europe is moving in the opposite direction.
Shanghai to Rotterdam: $4,092 per 40ft
The benchmark fell 5% this week.
Shanghai to Genoa: $4,368 per 40ft
The benchmark dropped 10% in a single week.
The fall comes as more capacity returns to Asia–Europe trades and demand softens. Drewry expects a further modest decline if those conditions continue.
That creates one of the clearest divergences in today’s container market: a box moving from Shanghai toward the US East Coast is close to $9,600, while a comparable 40ft dry box moving toward Northern Europe is just above $4,000.
Why Are US Container Rates Rising While Europe Is Falling?
The answer is capacity.
Not total fleet capacity in the abstract, but capacity available on a specific trade at a specific time.
Drewry says six blank sailings have been announced on the Transpacific for next week — twice this week’s number. Cancelling sailings removes scheduled space from the market. With cargo demand still resilient, that supports rates even without a surge in the global index.
Asia–Europe is experiencing the opposite combination. Blank sailings are expected to fall from four this week to one next week, adding effective capacity while demand softens.
That is enough to make rates move in opposite directions even though both trades use the same global containership fleet.
The underlying equation is straightforward:
Demand relative to available weekly slots → utilisation → carrier pricing power → spot freight.
Suez Is Starting to Change the Capacity Equation Again
Ocean carriers are increasing transits through the Suez Canal as services gradually return from the much longer Cape of Good Hope route.
That has an important effect on effective supply.
A ship routed around the Cape remains occupied for longer. More sea days mean more ship capacity is required to maintain the same weekly service frequency. When services return to Suez, voyage duration falls and the same fleet can move more cargo over a given period.
In other words, a Suez return can release capacity without a single new containership being delivered.
That is particularly relevant to Asia–Europe, where Drewry is already seeing more capacity entering the market.
The broader lesson also applies elsewhere in shipping. Tide Signal’s live Strait of Hormuz analysis explains why physical fleet size and commercially usable capacity are two different things when routes are constrained by security and owner appetite.
Middle East Risk Is Still Part of the Freight Equation
While some Red Sea and Suez services are returning, geopolitical risk has not disappeared.
Attacks on commercial shipping and severe disruption around the Strait of Hormuz continue to affect routing, insurance and operating decisions.
Marine risk does not always appear as a separate line inside a container-rate headline, but the cost can enter through fuel, insurance, schedule disruption, congestion and carrier surcharges.
Tide Signal’s War Risk Premiums in Shipping explains how security exposure can move from an insurer’s assessment into the economics of an actual voyage.
Weather and Panama Are Adding Another Layer
The rate market is also being shaped by problems far from the headline US–Europe split.
Chinese port operations have faced disruption following Typhoon Saudel and a series of recent storms. Congestion can remove effective capacity because ships spend time waiting rather than completing rotations.
At the Panama Canal, drought-related measures are limiting daily capacity to 34 transits in early September and 32 later in the month, with Neo-Panamax reservation capacity capped at nine slots per day, according to Drewry’s latest market assessment.
For container networks, these disruptions compound each other. A ship delayed at an Asian port can miss a berth window. A canal restriction can extend waiting time. A late arrival can disrupt the next voyage. Schedule reliability then becomes part of the rate negotiation.
What Is Included in a Container Shipping Rate?
This is where many online comparisons go wrong.
Drewry defines its WCI as total ocean freight for standard dry containers and includes several common carrier surcharges in the assessed rate.
Depending on applicability, the methodology includes items such as:
- bunker adjustment factors;
- emergency bunker adjustments;
- currency adjustment factors;
- peak season surcharges;
- equipment-related surcharges;
- port additional charges or dues;
- emergency-risk surcharges;
- port and carrier security charges;
- Suez Canal surcharges;
- Panama Canal surcharges;
- Gulf of Aden surcharges;
- port congestion surcharges;
- EU ETS surcharges where applicable.
Terminal handling charges can be included or excluded depending on the normal market practice for the route.
That makes the WCI much more useful than comparing a carrier’s bare base freight alone. But it still does not make the benchmark a complete door-to-door cost.
What Is Not Included in the Drewry Container Rate?
The WCI methodology specifically excludes inland transportation.
It also excludes several costs that an actual shipper may still pay separately, including:
- documentation or bill-of-lading fees;
- booking fees;
- customs-clearance fees;
- origin or destination trucking outside the CY-to-CY move;
- import duties and taxes;
- cargo insurance unless separately arranged;
- storage, demurrage or detention caused by delays outside the agreed free time;
- special equipment or non-standard cargo requirements.
So if a business sees a benchmark of $7,185 from Shanghai to Los Angeles, it should not budget exactly $7,185 for the entire shipment.
The final landed logistics bill can be higher — sometimes materially higher — depending on origin haulage, destination geography, customs, free time, terminal arrangements and the commercial terms of the booking.
Ocean Freight vs Door-to-Door Cost: A Simple Example
Assume an importer sees a $7,185 ocean benchmark from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
The real supply-chain cost could also contain:
| Cost layer | Is it automatically represented by the WCI headline? |
|---|---|
| Ocean freight | Yes |
| Common carrier surcharges | Generally included under the WCI methodology when applicable |
| Origin trucking | No |
| Destination trucking / rail | No |
| Customs clearance | No |
| Duties / taxes | No |
| Demurrage / detention | No, if incurred separately |
This is the difference between ocean freight and landed logistics cost.
20ft vs 40ft Container Shipping Cost: Can You Divide the Rate by Two?
No.
Drewry’s published WCI figures are reported per FEU — a standard 40ft container.
A 20ft container is one TEU, but that does not mean the commercial freight rate is automatically 50% of the 40ft rate.
Carriers price equipment according to trade balance, demand, weight, slot economics, repositioning and available boxes. A 20ft container can therefore cost considerably more than half of a 40ft container on some routes.
The safe approach is simple: use the WCI to understand the 40ft market direction, then obtain a route-specific 20ft quote if that is the equipment you need.
What About Refrigerated Containers, Flat Racks and Open Tops?
The headline rates on this page should not be used for specialised equipment.
Drewry’s WCI methodology covers standard dry containers carrying Freight All Kinds cargo. It does not include refrigerated cargo, open tops, flat racks or other specialised container types.
Reefer freight can differ substantially because the equipment is more expensive, the container requires power, available plugs are limited and some cargoes have strict temperature and monitoring requirements.
Oversized or out-of-gauge cargo introduces another pricing structure entirely.
How to Compare Container Freight Quotes Properly
The cheapest headline rate is not always the cheapest shipment.
When comparing quotes, ask each forwarder or carrier to state the same commercial basis.
A useful comparison should identify:
- origin and destination basis — CY/CY, port/port or door/door;
- container size and type — 20GP, 40GP, 40HC, reefer or specialised equipment;
- base ocean freight;
- included surcharges;
- origin charges;
- destination charges;
- documentation and customs fees;
- free time for demurrage and detention;
- transit time;
- whether the sailing is direct or transshipped;
- rate validity;
- space and equipment guarantee, if any.
A $6,900 rate with poor free time and expensive destination charges can easily cost more than a $7,300 quote with cleaner commercial terms.
For shippers, the correct metric is total expected cost per delivered container, not the smallest ocean-freight number in an email.
Why Blank Sailings Can Push Container Shipping Rates Higher
A blank sailing is a scheduled voyage that the carrier cancels.
If cargo demand remains unchanged while a weekly sailing disappears, fewer slots are available to move the same boxes.
That can increase utilisation on the remaining services and strengthen the carrier’s ability to hold or raise rates.
Drewry says six Transpacific blank sailings have been announced for next week, twice as many as this week. That is one reason it expects rates on the trade to remain broadly stable despite already elevated levels.
On Asia–Europe, blank sailings are expected to fall from four to one. More weekly capacity is therefore returning at the same time as demand is softer — a much less supportive combination for freight.
Why a Larger Global Fleet Does Not Guarantee Cheap Freight
Container freight is priced by usable capacity, not simply by the number of ships on the water.
A larger global fleet can coexist with high freight if enough capacity is absorbed by:
- longer routings;
- port congestion;
- weather delays;
- canal restrictions;
- blank sailings;
- schedule recovery;
- equipment imbalances;
- regional demand surges.
A ship sitting at anchor outside a congested port is part of the global fleet, but it is not creating the same weekly transport capacity as a ship completing its rotation on schedule.
That idea — effective capacity — is one of the most useful concepts for understanding why freight can remain expensive even during a period of heavy newbuilding deliveries.
What Does This Mean for Importers Right Now?
For US importers, particularly on the East Coast, current spot rates are expensive enough that timing and routing deserve active management.
A shipper should compare West Coast plus inland transport against all-water East Coast options rather than assuming one gateway is automatically cheaper.
For European importers, the recent decline offers more negotiating room, but it does not guarantee uninterrupted service. The return of Suez capacity, port congestion and weather disruption can still change schedules quickly.
For all shippers, the current market rewards three things:
- compare all-in commercial terms, not only base freight;
- understand how long the quote is valid;
- protect the supply chain against a cheap rate that comes with unreliable space or transit.
Will Container Shipping Rates Rise or Fall Next?
Drewry’s near-term view is split by trade.
On the Transpacific, it expects freight rates to remain broadly stable next week. Demand remains resilient and carriers are managing capacity through additional blank sailings.
On Asia–Europe, Drewry expects modest further declines as demand softens and more capacity is injected into the trade.
That means the global WCI can remain relatively stable while the gap between individual routes continues to widen.
Beyond the next week, five variables deserve attention:
- Suez: how quickly more container services return from Cape routing;
- US demand: whether Transpacific cargo volumes remain resilient;
- blank sailings: how aggressively carriers remove capacity;
- Asian port congestion: whether weather-related delays ease;
- Panama and Middle East disruption: whether canal and geopolitical constraints remove effective capacity.
Container Shipping Rates: The Number to Watch Is Not the Global Average
The Drewry World Container Index at $4,465 is useful because it gives the market a common benchmark.
But a shipper does not book the global average.
A Shanghai–New York customer is looking at $9,587.
A Shanghai–Rotterdam customer is looking at $4,092.
One is paying for a Transpacific market where carriers are tightening capacity. The other is buying into an Asia–Europe market where capacity is increasing and demand is softer.
That is why the answer to “How much does it cost to ship a container?” should always begin with another question:
From where, to where, in which container, on what commercial basis — and what is included?
The rate table gives the market benchmark. The quotation gives the actual transaction.
Confusing the two is one of the easiest ways to underestimate the real cost of moving a container.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to ship a 40ft container in 2026?
It depends heavily on the route. As of 3 September 2026, Drewry benchmarks Shanghai–New York at $9,587 per 40ft container, Shanghai–Los Angeles at $7,185, Shanghai–Rotterdam at $4,092 and Shanghai–Genoa at $4,368.
What is the current global container shipping rate?
Drewry’s World Container Index is $4,465 per 40ft container as of 3 September 2026. It is a weighted composite of eight major East–West trade routes rather than a universal rate available on every shipment.
How much is a container from China to the US?
Current Drewry benchmarks are $7,185 per 40ft container from Shanghai to Los Angeles and $9,587 from Shanghai to New York. Actual shipper quotations vary by carrier, dates, origin, destination, equipment and commercial terms.
How much is a container from China to Europe?
Drewry currently benchmarks Shanghai–Rotterdam at $4,092 per 40ft and Shanghai–Genoa at $4,368.
Does a container shipping rate include trucking?
Not in the Drewry WCI. The index is reported CY-to-CY and excludes inland transportation. Door-to-door quotes can therefore be substantially higher.
Are customs duties included in container freight rates?
No. Import duties and taxes are separate from the ocean-freight benchmark. Drewry’s methodology also excludes customs-clearance fees.
Is a 20ft container half the price of a 40ft container?
Not necessarily. A 20ft container represents half the nominal TEU capacity, but commercial pricing does not move in a fixed 1:2 ratio. Equipment supply, cargo weight, route balance and carrier pricing all affect the actual quote.
Why are container rates to New York so much higher than Rotterdam?
The current markets have different supply-demand balances. Transpacific carriers are using more blank sailings while demand remains resilient, whereas Asia–Europe is seeing more capacity and softer demand.
What is the Drewry World Container Index?
The WCI is a weekly benchmark of actual agreed spot freight rates on eight major East–West container routes. It reports rates in US dollars per 40ft standard dry container.
How often will this page be updated?
Tide Signal updates this living page when a new Drewry WCI assessment materially changes current container freight rates or the market outlook.
Related Tide Signal Coverage
- Is the Strait of Hormuz Open? — live shipping traffic, security and effective-capacity analysis from the Gulf.
- War Risk Premiums in Shipping — how geopolitical risk moves into voyage and freight economics.
- Voyage Margin Calculator — model freight revenue, voyage costs and break-even economics.
- Bunkering Operations Explained — fuel cost, documentation and the operational chain behind a ship’s voyage.
- IMO Net-Zero Framework 2026 — how future GHG pricing could change the cost base of large oceangoing ships.
Primary Sources and Methodology
- Drewry — World Container Index, 3 September 2026
- Drewry — World Container Index Methodology
- Drewry — Latest Container Shipping Trackers and Indices
Last updated: 4 September 2026. Freight rates are market benchmarks, not guaranteed carrier quotations. Actual costs vary by route, equipment, cargo, rate validity, surcharges, origin/destination charges, customs requirements and inland transport. Tide Signal updates this page as new market data is released.
