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Maritime shipping

Deep Sea Freight — Monthly Producer Price Index

The Producer Price Index for the US deep sea freight transportation industry (NAICS 483111), which tracks the prices US-based carriers receive for moving cargo by sea to and from foreign ports. Index, June 1988 = 100, not seasonally adjusted.

Data status: Provisional
Official statisticSource figures as of October 16, 2026Sources & methods
Sources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Period covered
Jun 1988 – Sep 2026
Source figures as of
October 16, 2026
Geography
United States
Sector
Transportation, Maritime Trade & Logistics · Maritime shipping
Seasonal adjustment
Not seasonally adjusted
Transformations
Views other than the level (changes, averages, volatility) are calculated by CK Economics from these figures
Revisions
1 figure revised by the source recently; the site shows the latest version.
Data status
Provisional
Limitations
Figures from Jun 2026 on are preliminary at the source. Seasonal swings are left in: compare a period with the same period a year earlier.

Full method · Research standards

No projectionIn backtests at 40 past dates, a statistical projection (exponential smoothing, damped trend) was not clearly better than a no-change forecast: its errors over the next 3 months were 1% smaller, short of the 5% improvement needed, so none is shown. How we decide

Key figures

CK estimateIndex (Jun 1988=100) · calculated by CK Economics from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data

Latest · Sep 2026
534.8
+36.8% vs a year earlier1
5-year change
+54.2%
since Sep 2021, +9.0% a year2
10-year change
+122.0%
since Sep 2016, +8.3% a year2
Record high
534.8
Sep 20263
Record low
100
Jun 19883
Where the latest ranks
100th pct.
Higher than 100% of the other 459 observations since Jun 19884
  1. 1Latest observation against the observation one year earlier (for weekly data, the nearest within three days).
  2. 2Latest observation against the observation five and ten years earlier; the yearly rate is the compound annual growth rate over the span.
  3. 3Highest and lowest published observations across the full history shown.
  4. 4Share of the other published observations that are lower than the latest one, rounded down.

Seasonal pattern

CK estimate

Each month of 2026 and 2025 against the average and range of the same month in 2021–2025. Calculated by CK Economics from the published series.

Monthly Index (Jun 1988=100) in 2026 and 2025 compared with the 2021–2025 average and range
2026 2025 2021–2025 average 2021–2025 range

Methodology

This is the BLS Producer Price Index for NAICS 483111, deep sea freight transportation: establishments primarily engaged in carrying cargo by deep sea vessel to or from foreign ports. Like all PPIs, it measures the average change in selling prices received by domestic (US-based) producers for their services, here the freight charges collected by US-based deep sea carriers. It is a price index (June 1988 = 100), not a dollar rate per container, and it is not seasonally adjusted. It is not a spot container rate benchmark such as the Drewry World Container Index or the Freightos Baltic Index. Those track quoted spot rates on specific trade lanes, mostly for carriers based outside the US. This index reflects the prices that the BLS's sample of US industry respondents actually charge, which can include contract as well as spot business. It therefore usually moves later and more smoothly than spot indices, and its level is not comparable to theirs. Values are monthly as published by BLS and mirrored on FRED, with no transformation and no missing months between June 1988 and August 2026. BLS marks the latest four months (May to August 2026 at publication) as preliminary: PPI indexes can be revised up to four months after first release, so recent figures may change. We checked the FRED figures against the BLS Public Data API for January 2025 to August 2026, and for October to December 1995 as a historical spot check. All values matched exactly, and the BLS series catalog confirms the June 1988 = 100 base. Projection: none. CK Economics backtests a statistical projection of this series (exponential smoothing with a damped trend) by refitting it at past dates and scoring its forecasts against what happened. Its errors over the next three months were not at least 5% smaller than those of the better of a no-change forecast and repeating the same month a year earlier, so no projection is shown.

How we collect, check and project every dataset →

Source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index by Industry: Deep Sea Freight Transportation (PCU483111483111), via FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU483111483111 — figures as published on 16 October 2026.

All data

460 observations, newest first · Index (Jun 1988=100)

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PeriodValueChange y/y
Sep 2026534.8+36.8%
Aug 2026532.7+35.6%
Jul 2026521.2+32.8%
Jun 2026504.3+24.6%
May 2026475.1+18.9%
Apr 2026462.1+12.6%
Mar 2026451.4+8.5%
Feb 2026441.8+1.0%
Jan 2026445.3+3.9%
Dec 2025415.3+5.4%
Nov 2025402.7+1.6%
Oct 2025420.7+2.7%
Sep 2025391−5.6%
Aug 2025392.8−9.2%
Jul 2025392.6−10.7%
Jun 2025404.8−6.9%
May 2025399.5−3.6%
Apr 2025410.3+2.4%
Mar 2025415.8+4.4%
Feb 2025437.6+6.7%
Jan 2025428.4+2.0%
Dec 2024394.2−3.5%
Nov 2024396.6+0.1%
Oct 2024409.5+0.1%

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