XSI® Europe

Europe Imports

· XSI® sub-index for European imports rose by 3.4% in August, up to 173.2 points – the highest it has been so far this year.

· Year-on-year, the sub-index is now only slightly lower than it was in August 2023, down by 3.1%. However, this masks large differences within this sub-index with only a handful of the underlying trades within 10 percentage points of where they were in August last year. Instead, we are seeing strong growth on the trades into Europe from the Far East and the Indian West Coast and Pakistan, while trades from other parts of the world are more subdued.

Europe Exports

· The XSI® sub-index for Europe Exports fell 0.7% in August, a smaller drop than the -4.8% in July.

· It now stands at 113.8 points, the lowest it has been since 2019.

· The Europe Exports sub-index has fallen the least in August compared to the other two major backhauls covered by the XSI® (US Exports and Far East Imports). However, the latest drop in August follows consecutive months of decline, meaning it is the XSI® sub-index to have fallen the most out of the three major backhauls compared to a year ago. The Europe Export sub-index is down 39.5% from August 2023, which is the highest year-on-year drop across all the XSI® indexes. This is an indication of the far more favorable conditions facing shippers exporting out of Europe as opposed those importing goods into the region.