Editorial standards

ContainerSignal covers container shipping and the freight markets around it. This page explains how the reporting is sourced and checked, so you can judge a figure before you act on it.

What we publish

• Analysis: original pieces that connect several developments into one argument, with the market or operational detail behind them.
• Market updates: weekly reads on rates, capacity and trade lanes, with the index and date named for every number.
• Briefings: short reports on operational news. These summarise reporting published elsewhere, credit it, and link to the original at the point of use.
• Guides and profiles: reference pieces on carriers, ports, terminals and how the market works, updated as things change.

Sourcing

Primary sources come first: carrier customer advisories, port authority and terminal notices, regulator filings, company results, and the publishers of the indexes themselves. Policy statements are quoted from the issuing body. If a figure appears only in secondary reporting, the secondary source is named.

Rates and units

Freight rates are quoted with the index they come from and the week they cover, because Shanghai to Los Angeles on one index is not the same number as on another. Capacity is quoted as TEU or FEU, and nominal or deployed capacity, exactly as the source states it. Units are preserved rather than converted, since silent conversion is how errors get into market coverage.

Forward-looking claims

Anything about where rates or capacity are going is either attributed to a named analyst or institution, or presented explicitly as uncertainty. The site does not publish price predictions dressed as reporting, and nothing here is investment, trading or legal advice.

Corrections

Mistakes are corrected in place, with a dated note at the foot of the article describing what changed. Substantive corrections are never made silently. To request one, email [email protected] with the URL, the figure and the source that shows the correct one.

AI assistance

Drafting and research tooling, including language models, is used to help gather and compare sources and tighten prose. Every published figure is checked against its source before it goes live, and the desk is accountable for the text. Content is not generated and published unreviewed.

Ownership and funding

ContainerSignal is independently owned and self-funded. No carrier, forwarder, terminal operator or index publisher pays for coverage, and there are no sponsored posts. No display advertising is sold directly; if programmatic advertising is added later, advertisers will have no input into what is covered.

Who is responsible

The site publishes under the ContainerSignal Editorial byline, which stands for the desk that reports, writes and edits it. The about page explains why the byline is not a personal one, and contact has the address for corrections, data questions and rights requests.