Freight indices Freightos and Drewry flip spread direction on Asia-US East Coast lane

Two public container-freight indices, Freightos FBX and Drewry WCI, disagreed by $614 on the Asia-US East Coast corridor last month, with Freightos lower. This month the gap reversed, with Freightos reading $405 above Drewry on the same corridor. The author argues the difference is not a fixed offset that can be subtracted, since it stems from several documented factors including destination and origin scope, unit of measure, surcharge treatment, methodology, and publication timing. The piece recommends using a single index for levels and comparing only the direction of movement when using two. It also outlines verification rules, such as dating every figure and checking units and surcharge notices, and describes extracting dated weekly series from lane pages.