Sea freight prices surge 25% in Q2 amidst Middle East conflict

Liquid bulk and gas led with 29%, whilst forwarding prices rose 10.2%.

Singapore’s sea freight transport price index (SFTPI) rose sharply by 25.4% quarter on quarter (QoQ) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026, following a 1.9% increase in the first quarter (Q1), with all sub-indices posting gains, according to the Department of Statistics (DOS).

Amongst the sub-indices, liquid bulk and gas posted the biggest QoQ increase at 29% in Q2, after rising 17.6% in Q1. Dry bulk followed with 26.2%, then containerised with 21%.

Year on year (YoY), the SFTPI increased 32.6% in Q2, accelerating from 1.3% in Q1.

The rise was mainly driven by liquid bulk and gas, which surged 51.6%. Dry bulk and containerised also posted YoY gains of 38.4% and 11.7%, respectively.

"The QoQ and YoY increases likely reflected shipping disruptions, higher bunker costs, war-risk insurance premiums, and other operating cost pressures faced by sea freight operators arising from the conflict in the Middle East," DOS said.

Meanwhile, the freight forwarding price index (FFPI) rose 10.2% QoQ in Q2, up from 4.4% in Q1, with the sea freight forwarding sub-index (up 11.8%) as one of the main drivers. The sub-index also rose 14.4% YoY.

DOS attributed the FFPI increases to higher freight rates amidst higher fuel and operating costs arising from the conflict in the Middle East.

A NOTE FROM SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia