Freightos is joining forces with the Baltic Exchange to launch the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX), meant to be a snapshot of the global shipping container market augmented by 12 additional regional indexes.
“The Baltic Exchange has been the go-to international freight expert for well over a century and we’re excited to partner with them,” Eytan Buchman, vice president of marketing for Freightos, said. “We also plan to establish financial instruments using the index, together with the Baltic Exchange’s parent company, the Singapore Exchange.”
Buchman said like Freightos’ international freight procurement platform and lane-specific Rate Insight Index, FBX is free of charge and raw data can be downloaded on-demand.
Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Frieghtos, said, “The FBX is a headline index that tracks global container prices with one key indicator, backed by a suite of 12 regional indexes, all rebranded under the Freightos Baltic Index. It will be the very first time container shipping will have the instruments and transparency that so far have only been available for financial services.”
The new methodology leverages the hundreds of years of experience introduced by the Baltic Exchange, Schreiber noted. The indexes will be available from the Freightos freight index hub, the Baltic Exchange website, and on Reuters and Bloomberg terminals. The indexes are audited and will be fully compliant with new regulations.
He said Freightos is pursuing plans to launch financial instruments together with the Baltic Exchange’s owners, the Singapore Exchange, in order to help shippers, carriers, and forwarders control for volatility by transforming the visibility for action.
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Schreiber noted that while a definitive international container freight index is one way to provide transparency, it’s a challenge because as an accurate, actionable freight index requires several key components. It should have data accuracy and timeliness, with full data objectivity, it needs to provide a range of data across geographies and must have the ability to transform the data into helpful indicators.
“Freightos’ technology powers international freight sales and management for over 1,000 logistics providers, as well as thousands of importers and exporters,” Schreiber said. “This has created a living and breathing database of over 1 billion data points across modes, carriers and forwarders. This drove Freightos’ launch of the Freightos International Freight Index in 2017.”
He said the launch of FBX just takes that index to the next level.
“Our vision with the Freightos procurement platform has always been to empower shippers, and enabling service providers to engage with customers in a digitally-powered, transparent manner,” Schreiber added. “Today, we’re happy to provide more visibility than ever to shippers. The next step is to translate that into more control for shippers and logistics providers, leveraging our data and shared expertise to make global freight even better.”