Container freight rates have hit a four-year-low ahead of the Golden Week holidays, suggesting that efforts by liner operators to manage capacity are catastrophically failing.

Spot rates dropped 19.2% in the week to 19 September to $1,242 per forty-foot equivalent unit (feu), according to the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX).

That is the lowest the FBX — a measure of rates on 12 key liner trades — has been since October 2019.