Shipping hit hard during the Christmas season.
Gao Feng pointed out that June to August is the peak season for Christmas goods shipment, but this year, considering the risk of shipping delays, overseas customers generally place orders in advance by looking at goods online and signing orders.Some orders have been shipped and delivered earlier than in previous years, and some orders are kept in domestic warehouses due to difficulties in booking space or high freight, which brings pressure to the operation of enterprises.
Some foreign trade enterprises said that due to the soaring prices and congestion of international logistics, millions of Christmas trees cannot leave in time for overseas. Enterprises with annual exports of about 150 million yuan have to spend 2 million yuan to rent a 10,000-square-meter warehouse for stacking Christmas trees.
It should be noted that in previous years, orders for the whole year could only be received at the end of May, but this year they were advanced to March.According to the analysis of the staff, the reasons for customers placing orders early this year are not only the orders that were on the wait-and-see last year due to the epidemic, but also the rising freight costs and prolonged shipping cycle due to the tight supply of international logistics. As time-sensitive commodities, customers believe that they must place orders in advance and the sooner they get the goods, the better the insurance will be.
As ports on all continents faced operational disruptions, more than 362 large carriers were berthed outside ports as of Aug. 24, according to container shipping platform Seaexplorer.As of May, waiting times for container ships to berth have more than doubled since 2019, according to IHS Markit’s port performance data, with the deterioration most severe in North America, where ships spent an average of 33 hours at anchor in May 2021, up from an average of just eight hours in May 2019.A new forecast from the National Retail Federation shows a record number of containers entering North America in August, traditionally the busiest month for shipping, and container congestion will continue to feed through to shipping prices.
In terms of tonnage, global shipping demand fell by about 3.4 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, while containers fell by 0.7 percent, jia Dashan, deputy director of the Water Transport Research Institute under the Ministry of Transport, said at a monthly economic talk themed “International Logistics and Shipping Situation” held at the National Economic Center on August 25.Global seaborne demand is expected to grow by 4.4% in 2021, while container demand is expected to grow by more than 5%.In terms of capacity, the size of the global maritime fleet will grow by 4.1% in 2020 compared to 2019, and is expected to grow by 3% in 2021.
He pointed out that compared with 2019, global shipping demand is expected to grow by 1% this year, container growth by 5%, and capacity and container supply growth by 7.1% and 7.4% respectively. Fleet size as a whole is faster than volume growth, but freight prices have risen significantly.In his view, container-ship rentals, seafarers’ costs, intermediary fees and oil prices have all contributed to the surge in shipping costs.
Data show that the shipping price of a 40-foot standard container on the East route from China to the United States has exceeded $20,000, up five times year on year.The Shanghai export container freight index, which represents spot prices and was released on August 27, continued to hit a record high at 4, 385.62 points, up more than four times from last year’s low.
In view, the root cause of the shortage of capacity is the inefficiency of transport caused by port closures and a shortage of seamen.At present, the average time of port cancellation is 3-5 days in European ports, 10-12 days in Western ports of the United States, and about 7 days in eastern ports of the United States. Recently, Yantian port, Ningbo port and other Asian ports have also been blocked.
Post time: Aug-31-2021