Freight rates on the four main ocean trades slipped again last week, and one major bank has predicted that Asia to Europe prices will fall below the 2010 average for the next two years.

According to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI), all-in spot rates on services from Shanghai to Europe slipped to US$1,321 per teu at the end of last week, compared with $1,342 per teu at the end of the previous week.

Rates on services to the Mediterranean slipped $3 to $1,209 per teu and prices from Shanghai to the US west coast fell $22 to $1,955 per feu and to the east coast by $30 to $3,168 per feu.

According the SCFI, rates on the main four trade lanes have been falling since the start of the year, despite carriers announcing price increases for January.

Those increases have since been pushed back until the second quarter, according to freight forwarder sources.

Speculation in the market suggests carriers may have held back to protect market share, or because they are trying to ensure they have enough volumes during the post-Chinese New Year slack season.

Analysts Hackett Associates and the Bremen Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) said in a recent report: "Container lines are struggling to apply rate increases of between $250 and $300 that were meant to take effect in the Asia-Europe trades at the start of the month.

"Concern about the large amount of new capacity that will enter service during the course of 2011 is said to be weighing on prices."

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank has predicted that rates on the Asia-Europe trade will fall from an average of $2,083 per teu last year to $1,750 per teu in 2011 and $1,400 in 2012.

The German bank blamed the decline on expectations that tonnage on the trade would jump by 20-30% over the next nine months.

This compares with analyst AXS Alphaliner's prediction that global demand growth would slow "significantly" this year to below 8%, after estimated growth of 13.6% in 2010