Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI)

What is the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI)?

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) is a weekly benchmark of container spot freight rates from the Port of Shanghai to major world ports, published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. Unlike the dry-bulk Baltic indices, the SCFI covers containerized cargo — manufactured goods, electronics, furniture and the rest of the boxed-trade economy. It is a weighted composite across key trade lanes (Europe, the US West and East Coasts, the Mediterranean and others) and is quoted on a base of 1000 set in October 2009. Because so much of the world's container trade originates in China, the SCFI is one of the most closely watched gauges of container shipping rate movements.

How often is the SCFI updated and when is it published?

The SCFI is published once a week, every Friday, by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. This weekly cadence is important for anyone building monitoring or alerting: a data pipeline should treat the SCFI as fresh for roughly eight days and only flag it as stale after more than a week without an update — applying a daily staleness threshold would generate a false alarm every single day. OilPriceAPI is set up to track the SCFI on a weekly-cadence freshness monitor for this reason.

How does the SCFI compare to the Drewry World Container Index?

The SCFI and the Drewry World Container Index (WCI) both measure container spot rates, but they differ in origin, scope and unit. The SCFI is published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange every Friday, is Shanghai-origin, and is quoted as an index (base 1000). The Drewry WCI is published every Thursday, covers eight major East-West routes from multiple origins, and is quoted in US dollars per 40-foot container. Many analysts watch both: the SCFI for a China-centric, index-form read, and the WCI for a dollar-denominated, multi-route benchmark. They generally move in the same direction during major rate cycles.

Who uses the SCFI?

• Importers and exporters benchmarking container spot rates out of China
• Freight forwarders and shippers negotiating contract vs spot pricing
• Supply-chain and logistics analysts tracking container market tightness
• Container line and NVOCC desks monitoring rate momentum

How do I get Shanghai Containerized Freight Index data via API?

Request the latest SCFI value from the OilPriceAPI REST endpoint using the code SCFI_INDEX. Sign up for a free API key, then call:

curl "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest?by_code=SCFI_INDEX" \
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY"

The response is JSON with the current value, currency/unit and a timestamp. Poll on the index's publish cadence — weekly, published every friday — rather than every minute.

When the SCFI is not the right data