December 11th, 2025 – Container rates on the eastbound trans-Pacific route from Asia to the U.S. crept up again last week, but the increase was too small to offset the fact that prices remain 20% to 30% below where they stood in November.
Spot rates rose about 7%, or $140 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU), marking a short-term rebound after hitting a low point in late November. Even with this lift, rates are still down roughly 32%, or $950 per FEU, from early November, based on updates from analysts at Xeneta and eeSea. The market continues to adjust from earlier supply-and-demand imbalances, resulting in more available capacity than needed. Despite the recent uptick, rates still haven’t recovered to last month’s levels, showing how soft the market remains. Shippers should keep this weaker environment in mind when carriers request general rate increases, since current demand doesn’t support higher pricing.
A SONAR index highlights the softening trend, showing a decline in loaded containers shipped from China to the U.S. this year compared with 2024 and 2023. These shifts in spot rates help shape the pricing benchmarks used for contract talks, which start to ramp up in January.
On the Asia–U.S. West Coast lane, available capacity remains essentially flat, slipping just 1%—a sign that no meaningful tonnage has been added in the latest week. Compared with November, capacity is up 7%, or 20,000 TEUs, as weaker pricing aligns with the higher supply, even as spot rates attempt a modest recovery.
Week over week, spot rates to the East Coast rose about 8%, or $220 per FEU, showing a short-term strengthening in the market. Even so, prices are still 21%, or $750 per FEU, below where they were a month earlier— a steep drop that the recent improvement only partly offsets. Capacity on this lane was cut by 3% over the past week helping push rates up, but overall supply is still 12% higher than earlier in the season. This mix of more ships in service and lingering rate pressure highlights how imbalanced the market remains.
Other major trade lanes are seeing very different conditions. The Far East–North Europe market shows strength on both the demand and supply sides, with carriers adding more capacity and rates continuing to climb. Rate increases are even stronger on the Far East–Mediterranean route, where double-digit growth over the past month has followed deliberate capacity cuts by carriers.
Analysts also note that the Asia–Europe trade is getting some support from developments around the Red Sea–Suez Canal corridor. Carriers seem to be preparing for a larger return to the area, but several steps still need to happen before activity can ramp up, and transit volumes remain well below pre-crisis levels.
