Daily Industry Briefing
Today we picked out three pieces of news directly tied to your import costs: first, shipping lines are cutting a large number of sailings ahead of the National Day Golden Week, with the global container rate index dipping slightly overall even as Asia-Europe rates fell and transpacific rates rose; second, Malaysia's Ministry of Communications confirmed that licensing conditions for e-commerce platforms are still pending decisions from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Domestic Trade; third, the ringgit weakened against the US dollar, quietly pushing up import quotation costs.
Today's Three Stories
1. Shipping Lines Cut Sailings Heavily Before National Day Golden Week, Drewry Index Dips Slightly
Drewry's World Container Index (WCI) fell 1% this week to USD 4,468 per 40-foot container, after a small uptick the previous week
gCaptain · 2026-09-24 · Read Original ↗
2. MCMC: E-commerce Platform Licensing Framework Ready, Conditions Still Await Finance Ministry and Domestic Trade Ministry
Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) already has licensing authority under the existing legal framework, but the specific conditions must be decided by the relevant ministries
BusinessToday Malaysia · 2026-09-22 · Read Original ↗
3. Ringgit Weakens Against US Dollar as Fed Rate Hike Expectations Lift Dollar Index
At 8am on September 24, the ringgit was quoted at 4.0835/0910 against the US dollar, weaker than the previous day's close of 4.0780/0825
BusinessToday Malaysia · 2026-09-24 · Read Original ↗
HASTE Take
Blank sailings before Golden Week, a weaker ringgit, and pending licensing conditions — put together, these three things mean your landed costs will run a bit higher than usual for the next week or two. Move quickly.
Let's start with shipping schedules. To handle China's National Day Golden Week, shipping lines are jumping their transpacific blank sailings from 9 this week to 15 next week, and Asia-Europe blank sailings from 3 to 7. This shows carriers are broadly pulling back capacity ahead of the holiday — not just on the Europe-US routes, but across the whole pace of China's exports. If your goods need to move through consolidation these two weeks, get them to our warehouse a few days early to avoid getting caught in the blank sailing window, which could delay customs clearance and delivery on the Malaysian side.
This is a condensed version. The full briefing, with every key point, the cost comparison table and the recommended actions, is published on the Haste website:
This article is compiled from publicly available news reports for reference only. It does not constitute investment, tax or legal advice. Please refer to official announcements for actual rates and policies.
