Foreign trade
The container doubled in price in half a year
4,339 dollars to move a forty-foot box
$4,339
Per forty-foot container
world index, 13 August 2026
+104.7%
So far this year
the price has doubled
+138.5%
Since 26 February
in a little over four months
8
Routes the index measures
the main ones in world trade
1,89926 February
4,5302 July
4,33913 August
From February's floor to August's level.
Moving a forty-foot container along the eight main routes of world trade costs 4,339 dollars, according to Drewry's index of 13 August. So far this year the price is up 104.7%, and since the floor of late February, 138.5%.
For an island that imports between 85% and 90% of what it eats, a freight index is not shipping news. It is the price of the weekly shop a few months from now.
The lag is the part that fools people. The freight is paid when the box leaves, and it reaches the shelf weeks or months later, mixed in with everything else. By the time the increase shows up in the supermarket, the index has been reporting it for a while.