To promote China's cross-straits trade and cooperation, accelerate the development of Taiwan cross-straits direct sailing, reflect the trend of relationship between supply and demand as well as the change of freight rates, and provide decision reference for the market participants and government economy macro-control, we have partnered with Xiamen Shipping Exchange to develop the Taiwan cross-straits container Freight Index (hereinafter referred as "TWFI"). The index was launched on November 27, 2014.

1. Overview of TWFI
  TWFI consists of one composite index, two component indices (i.e. TWFI import index, TWFI export index) and six sub-indices for individual trade lanes. The six routes cover North China- Taiwan, East China - Taiwan, Southeast China- Taiwan, Taiwan – North China, Taiwan - East China, Taiwan – Southeast China. TWFI takes January 22, 2014 as the base period, with base index of 1,000 points. The details of the base ports of the six trade lanes are listed below:
  East China: Shanghai.
  North China: Tianjin, Qingdao.
  Southeast China: Xiamen, Fuzhou.
  East China: Shanghai.

2. The Index Calculation
  （1）The sub route index is calculated by Laplace index method and the calculation method is listed as below:
  
  Where: is the route(i) index in the current period;
   is the route(i) index in the base period (The base period of composite index is set on 22nd January, 2014, with base index of 1,000 points);
   is the average rate of the route(i) in the base period;
   is the average rate of the route(i) in the current period and it is calculated using weighted average method with the method listed as below:
  
  Where: n is the number of the sample company on the specific route i;
     is the weighting of the company j on the specific route i;
     is the freight income per unit box of company j on the specific route i including ocean freight, Emergency Bunker Surcharge, Container Imbalance Charge, Origin Terminal Handling Charge, Destination Terminal Handling Charge and other relevant seaborne surcharges.

  （2）The two component indices are the weighted averages of relevant sub route indices and the calculation method is listed below：
  
  Where: m is the number of the sub routes; is the weighting of the route(i); is the component index value of the base period;

  （3）The composite index is the weighted average of two component indices and the calculation formula is listed as below:
  
  Where: is the import index; is the weighting of import index； is the export index; is the weighting of export index.

3. The panelist
  The sample companies are those who are involved in the trade on the specific routes of TWFI. The company names are listed as below: COSCO Shipping Lines Co., Ltd., Sinotrans Container Lines, SITC Container Lines, Shanghai Jin Jiang Shipping, Shanghai Min Sheng Shipping, China United Lines, Fujian Huarong Marine Shipping Group Corporation, Fujian Waimao Shipping, Fujian Orient Shipping Co.,LTD, OOCL, EVERGREEN MARINE CORP. (TAIWAN) LTD., Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp, COASTAL LINE NAVIGATION CO.,LTD., Wan Hai Lines Ltd., Taiwan Xishu Shipping, Kanway International Co., Ltd., T.S. Lines Ltd.

4. Index publication
  TWFI is published on each Wednesday afternoon (holidays excluded). Users can log on the official website to get the updates. The index publication may be adjusted or postponed when necessary and reasonable.