Answers to common questions from procurement leaders, CFOs, and logistics teams about sirius — the freight cost pressure intelligence measuring the pulse of the supply chain.
sirius is a freight cost pressure intelligence brief published weekly by TetriXX AI in partnership with LSCMS — measuring the pulse of the supply chain. It tracks market signals across 10 global trade lanes to surface where cost pressure is building before it reaches your invoice.
The base period is January 2026 = 100. A sirius reading of 134 means the inputs to your variable freight costs have increased 34% since January 2026. Delivered every Friday to Pro and Pro+ subscribers.
sirius is published by TetriXX AI (Singapore, UEN 202135956H) in partnership with LSCMS, the apex professional body for Supply Chain in Asia. TetriXX AI builds the technology and computes the intelligence. LSCMS provides industry validation and distribution reach.
sirius is a standalone freight cost pressure intelligence product. Freya is TetriXX AI's freight invoice intelligence platform that continuously verifies every incoming invoice against your rate cards and contracts.
sirius gives you the market-level signal: where is cost pressure building across trade lanes? Freya gives you the company-level financial translation: what does that pressure cost your company, on your carriers, on your routes, verified to invoice level.
You do not need Freya to use sirius, and you do not need sirius to use Freya. Together, they provide both the map and the navigation.
No. A sirius reading of 134 means the inputs to your variable freight costs have increased 34% since January 2026. Your actual exposure depends on your modal mix and contract structure.
Variable costs (fuel surcharges, CAF, GRI, war risk) represent a meaningful but variable share of total freight spend — the proportion depends on your modal mix and contract structure. The sirius Pro cost calculator applies the right ratio to your specific spend profile to translate the index reading into a projected invoice impact.
Your freight invoice has two components:
Fixed: Base freight rate (locked for the contract period), terminal handling, documentation fees. These do not move with market signals.
Variable: Fuel surcharges (BAF, FSC, EFS), currency adjustment factors (CAF), general rate increases (GRI), war risk and emergency surcharges. These move with market conditions.
sirius measures pressure on the variable portion only. The variable share differs by modality — ocean-heavy portfolios typically carry more variable exposure than road-heavy ones. The sirius Pro cost calculator applies your specific modal mix to give you a precise estimate.
The Wave is a visualisation of the time lag between market pressure and your invoice. When Brent crude spikes, the cost does not hit your freight bill immediately. It flows through carrier surcharge update cycles, which vary by carrier and modality: typically 1 to 8 weeks.
The Wave shows where money hides between the market signal and your payment. For procurement teams, this lag is where negotiation leverage lives: you can see the pressure building before your carrier sends the adjusted surcharge notice.
January 2026 was selected as a period of relative market stability before the current crisis cycle. The baseline is fixed and is never rebased during periods of market stress.
This ensures readings remain comparable over time. A CFO who budgeted freight costs in January can directly read sirius to see how far actual input pressure has deviated from their budget assumptions.
Yes. The sirius Pro report includes an interactive cost calculator where you enter your annual freight spend and lane allocation. It outputs your projected variable cost exposure at M1, M3, M6, M9, and M12 horizons under three scenarios (base, escalation, de-escalation).
This is designed specifically for CFO budget variance planning and procurement negotiation preparation. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your spend figures are not sent to any server.
The Drewry WCI measures what ocean container freight rates were last week. It is a backward-looking, single composite number covering ocean only.
sirius measures where cost pressure is heading next — decomposed into four core pressure layers (fuel, capacity, surcharge, FX), across three modalities (ocean, air, road), with a forward horizon of 1 to 12 months.
They are complementary: Drewry verifies what happened. The sirius index anticipates what is coming.
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) tracks spot container rates on Shanghai export routes. It is granular and widely followed, but Shanghai-origin only, ocean only, spot only, and backward-looking.
The sirius index covers 10 trade lanes (not just Shanghai origin), three modalities, and looks forward. Where the SCFI tells you what Shanghai export rates were, sirius tells you where cost pressure is heading across the full global network.
Xeneta provides rate benchmarking: what did the market pay for freight? It is valuable for understanding contract competitiveness.
The sirius index measures the upstream cost drivers that will affect future rates. Xeneta shows what happened. The sirius index shows what is coming. During a crisis, contract rates in Xeneta lag spot by 2 to 3 months, so Xeneta may show calm while invoices are about to spike.
Yes. They serve different purposes. Drewry and Xeneta answer "what did the market charge?" The sirius index answers "where is pressure building next?" Using them together gives you backward verification and forward anticipation.
If you currently use Drewry or Xeneta for contract negotiations, sirius adds a forward dimension: instead of negotiating based only on historical rates, you can show your carrier what the pressure inputs look like for the next quarter.
sirius Pro ($99/month, 14-day trial): All 10 trade lanes, interactive cost calculator, The Wave scenarios (M1 to M12), 15 prioritised recommendations across 3 urgency tiers, and modal decomposition (ocean/air/road pressure separately). Delivered every Friday by email.
sirius Pro+ ($299/month or $2,990/year): Everything in Pro, plus CFO Lens, COO Lens, and CPO Lens panels for persona-specific P&L analysis — mitigation playbooks, custom threshold alerts, carrier-level behaviour analysis, and historical variance tracking.
After registering on this website, you receive the report by email every Friday. The report is available as both an interactive HTML file (with the cost calculator, charts, and toggles) and a PDF for offline reading.
The HTML version is recommended for desktop use. The cost calculator and interactive features require a modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge).
No. sirius is computed entirely from public market data. No client-specific invoices, rates, or shipment data are used in the computation.
The sirius Pro cost calculator uses spend figures that you enter yourself. These are processed locally in your browser and are never sent to any server.
sirius tracks its own prediction accuracy as part of a self-correcting feedback loop. When projections deviate from realised outcomes, model parameters are adjusted automatically. sirius has maintained a strong directional track record since January 2026.
Past accuracy is not indicative of future results. Extreme events — beyond the range of historical precedents in the model — may exceed model assumptions. sirius publishes its confidence score alongside each projection so users can assess the reliability of the forward signal directly.
Every data point in sirius carries a provenance tag indicating its source and date. All sources are publicly available or commercially licensed. There are no black-box inputs.
Every weekly reading is permanently versioned. If a correction is needed (e.g., a source agency revises a data point), a new version is published with a changelog. Historical readings are never silently overwritten.