Serving as a barometer of shipping market, freight index is widely applied. To meet the demand of China's fast developing container transport market, China (Export) Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) sponsored was firstly publicized on April 13, 1998.
     During the past decades, CCFI has fully exerted its function of reflecting market tendency, receiving worldwide attention with considerable economic and social effects. Owing to its scientific and authoritative approach, CCFI is deemed as the world second influential freight index following the Baltic Dry Bulk Freight Index and has been cited as authoritative statistics in the Shipping Annals published by UNCTAD.
     CCFI objectively shows the container transport market and bridges China's shipping market to the world circle, which provides well-founded information to decision-makers of various maritime and trade enterprises, governmental agencies in charge of macro-economic regulation and control, mass media, and research and consulting institutes.
     Formulation and publication of CCFI:
    1. Basic period. CCFI took January 1, 1998 as the basic period with the basic index of 1,000 points.
    2. Selection of sample trade lanes. As per the three major principles of typicality, relativity and regional layout, 12 trade lanes were chosen as the samples, namely Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand, Mediterranean, Europe, East and West Africa, American West Coast, American East Coast, South Africa, South America, Persian Gulf /Red sea services. Their ports of departure in China include ten hub ports i.e. Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Nanjing, Ningbo, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
    3. Collection of freight information. At present, 23 domestic and foreign shipping companies with high international prestige and large market shares voluntarily established the freight index compilation committee. They are (in English alphabetical order): CMA-CGM, COSCO Shipping Lines Co., Ltd., China United Lines Ltd., Evergreen Marine Corp. (Taiwan) Ltd., Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Heung-A, KMTC, Maersk, MSC, ONE, OOCL, PIL, RCL, Shanghai Hai Hua Shipping, Shanghai Jin Jiang Shipping, Sinotrans Container Lines, SITC Container Lines, SM Line (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp., Wan Hai Lines Ltd., T.S. Lines Limited, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (China) Co., Ltd.
    4. Publication: The CCFI composite index and its sub-indices of 12 trade lanes are released on each Friday.