Road transport prices in Spain have held up relatively well in the domestic market. On the principle intra-European links, the situation is more contrasted.
Upply has commenced a collaborative project with Transprime, the Spanish Shippers' Council, to produce a quarterly report on the evolution of the Spanish road transport market.
The report covering the first quarter of 2024 indicates a good resilience of activity in the domestic market. It is clear that the strong momentum of the Spanish economy continued in the first quarter of 2024. GDP grew 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, as in the previous quarter. Year-on-year, it increased by 2.4%, after an increase of 2.1% in the previous quarter. Domestic demand contributed 2.2 points and external demand 0.2 points, says INE, the Spanish Institute of Statistics.
1/ Domestic market
This context prevented a sharp drop in rates at the close of the end-of-year peak season. The spot rate index continued to rise, albeit very slightly, in line with the resilience of domestic demand in Spain. However, the contractual rates index has started to fall, showing a balance of power favourable to shippers in contract renegotiations. This can also be explained by the drop in diesel prices from the highs reached in 2023. On this point, however, an upward trend began to manifest itself during Q1 2024. The gap between the spot index and the contractual index widened during this quarter, from 2.4 points to 5.2 points.
Content source : Upply – Base 100: 2017.
2/ International market
Our report presents the evolution of freight rates on the international routes that connect Spain to its main European economic partners, namely Germany, France, and Italy.
France, Spain's top European trading partner for exports and second biggest partner for imports, remains in a low-growth zone. GDP grew 0.2% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2024, compared to the 0.1% growth in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates from the French Institute of Statistics (INSEE).
In the direction Spain-France, the differential between the spot price index and the contract price index has narrowed considerably over one year. In Q1 2024, the contractual price index was 0.8 points higher than that of spot prices, while in Q1 2023, spot rates were 10.1 points above contractual prices. A similar trend is observable in the other direction. The gap between spot and contract prices also decreased significantly year-on-year, from 13.8 points in Q1 2023 to 3.4 points in Q1 2024. While the spot rate index had briefly fallen below that of contractual rates in Q3 2023, for two quarters, the historical logic has returned.
Content source : Upply
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The complete Transprime/Upply report on the Spanish road transport market in Q1 2024 is reserved for Transprimer members. To download the public summary of this report, please fill in your details below.
