Germany: Red Sea crisis pushes up freight rates

Figures from the German Federal Statistical Office Destatis show price increases for transport and freight forwarding services.

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In the second quarter of this year, prices for all services in Germany rose by 2.3 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2023 and by 1 per cent compared to the first quarter of this year, according to data released by Destatis. Strong growth was recorded in Germany in road freight transport and sea and air freight forwarding, the authority points out. Transport and warehousing services rose by 3.3 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

This is the largest price increase of all service sectors. The main reason was higher freight forwarding prices, which increased by 6.7 per cent compared to the second quarter of the previous year. In the area of sea freight forwarding, higher freight rates due to Houthi militia attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea drove up prices.

For air freight forwarding, increased purchases by private Asian consumers led to capacity bottlenecks for online shops, resulting in higher prices. Road transport also became clearly more expensive, with a year-on-year increase of 6 per cent. This was due to an increase in truck fares, wages and staff costs.

The price increase for sea freight transport was 4.6 per cent between April and June this year compared to the same period last year.

However, service rates in this sector fell by 1.1 per cent compared to the first quarter of this year.

It’s important to note that the Red Sea crisis caused maritime transport prices to surge by as much as 26.6% in the first three months of 2024.