Shipping Archives

February 18, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Congestion in West America worsens!

Recently, a cold wave swept the United States and quickly plunged the southern state of Texas into disaster. In this unprecedented cold wave, more than 4 million people in the United States have suffered power outages, countless power plants have been destroyed, and electricity and natural gas prices have skyrocketed. ; At present, the price of electricity in Texas has increased by more than 100 times, up to 9,000 US dollars per megawatt, and the price of natural gas has skyrocketed by more than 160 times, reaching US$500, compared with only US$3 in the past; it is jaw-dropping.

Except for Texas, which is in a serious disaster, other states in the United States are not doing well. There are about 168 million people in the United States under the threat of this cold wave. Numerous airports have been suspended. According to data from the flight monitoring website "flightaware", Dallas and Houston , Austin area airports have cancelled more than 2,000 inbound and outbound flights on the 15th . Coupled with the new crown pneumonia crisis that is still raging across the United States, the United States is really miserable.

In terms of shipping, the Southern California anchorage is full of container ships, and the congestion continues to worsen ! The latest video released by the U.S. Coast Guard provides intuitive evidence of the congestion levels in Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. From the picture, a large number of container ships are moored at the anchorage in San Pedro Bay, California.

Congestion in West America worsens! Aerial photography of Southern California full of container ships! Terminal operators expect to get rid of the dilemma by the end of spring — U.S. Coast Guard aerial scene

Data shows that the historic container ship congestion in California ports has not really eased. There are currently 63 container ships in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and 32 container ships are waiting for berths at anchorages. (On February 1st, the highest record of 40 container ships anchored at anchorage)

The Port of Los Angeles announced the number of berth days for a particular container ship through its Signal platform last week. Data shows that some ships stay at anchorage and wait for almost as long as they sail across the Pacific Ocean . For example, as of last Thursday, the 6332TEU container ship "Ever Envoy" has been parked for 11 days. As of Tuesday, the 9,400TEU "MSC Romane" has been parked for 12 days. And the three container ships of 11356TEU "CMA CGM Andromeda", 8452 TEU "Ever Liven" and 4888TEU "NYK Nebula" also berthed for 11 days as of last week.

As of the end of 2020, the number of container ships at anchor has increased to 30; since then, it has remained between 20 and 40. At the same time, the number of vessels at berths in Los Angeles and Long Beach remained at around 20 and 30. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Southern California Shipping Exchange, said: "We seem to have adapted to the new normal of about 30 container ships waiting in line every day. I don't know if this situation will continue."

As of Tuesday, the average time for ships docking in Los Angeles was 8 days , up from 7.3 days at the beginning of last week. From the information on the waiting time of ships provided by the platform from January 27th, the waiting time for ships to berth has been maintained for about one week, and the data for the last two periods has been extended to 8 days.

　　The latest data from the Signal platform: 20 ships at anchor, with an average anchoring time of 8.0 days. There are 14 ships waiting to be pre-anchored.

What caused the blockage? The extended berthing time of ships forced some shipping companies to cancel multiple voyages this month. This is not due to lack of cargo demand, but due to lack of available vessels to handle these services. Delays on land have also caused congestion at sea: extremely high inbound volumes and complex logistics inside and outside the port have caused delays on land. One of the challenges facing the port is the new crown virus infection of dockers and a serious shortage of labor.

Despite productivity gains last month, terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said the ports may have to wait until the end of spring to get rid of the ship backlog and congestion that have plagued them in the past six months . The near-record number of containers will continue into the spring of this year, but the backlog of ships at the port and the fully loaded inbound containers at the terminal should disappear sometime between April and June.

The managers of SSA Marine, Yusen Terminals and Fenix Marine stated that in order to alleviate the congestion in the port, two projects to be developed are necessary. First, the COVID-19 vaccine must be widely distributed among dock workers to alleviate the recent labor shortage. During the Lunar New Year holiday this month, container traffic has declined moderately, which should also enable shipping terminals to remove the backlog of fully loaded imported containers from their facilities.

"The terminals are full and there is no place to put these containers. We deliver 35% less cargo (to truck drivers) than usual," said Ed Dannick, president of SSA Containers.

According to data from the HarborTrucking Association, the average truck stay at the terminal in January improved from 93 minutes in December to 88 minutes, but it was still much higher than the record low of 58 minutes in June. Imports peaked during the recovery period after the first wave of COVID-19 lockdown.

The backlog of ships in Long Beach, Los Angeles, is increasing unabated. According to statistics from the Marine Exchange of Southern California, there are currently 63 container ships in the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles, of which 32 are at anchor waiting for berths and 31 are at berths.

The latest data released by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) shows that in December last year, the average container stay time at the 12 terminals of the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles was 4.99 days. This is twice the average length of stay (approximately 2.5 days) recorded by PMSA in the first half of 2020.

“The longer the container stays at the terminal, the more serious the congestion will be. When the container piles up like a mountain, the congestion creates additional and inefficient handling requirements,” said PMSA’s government affairs manager jessicaalvarenga.

The new crown epidemic hits labor in the port

According to the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the West Coast port employers' Association and the International Terminal and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the new crown epidemic has severely affected the labor force along the Los Angeles-Long Beach Port. As of January 17, The International Terminal and Warehouse Union (ILWU) reported that 694 of its members tested positive. By January 25, this number jumped to 803.

PMA stated that there is a particular shortage of skilled equipment operators, who need to remove containers from trucks, and then move them into and out of the container yard, which is critical to the operation of the terminal. As a result, the joint committee of PMA and ILWU, which is responsible for allocating workers to the docks on a daily basis, cut the allocation share.

"It boils down to the labor issue at the terminal," said Scott Weiss, vice president of business development at Port Logistics Group, which has a large number of truck and warehouse operations throughout Southern California. "Containers still have bottlenecks in and out of the terminal."

The latest information released by the Signal platform of the Port of Los Angeles shows that due to the new crown epidemic, the productivity of coastal labor has decreased, which has caused ship delays and the average delay of port facilities is 8.0 days .

These ports are working with trans-Pacific shipping companies to reduce Southern California's load until the volume returns to normal. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said that he is working with shipping companies and terminal operators to "measure" imports until the port catches up. Hapag-Lloyd (Hapag-Lloyd) has announced the opening of a structured route to Southern California in February, and CMA CGM will remove Los Angeles from the trans-Pacific route and use Oakland as the first port of call from Asia. , Followed by Seattle-Tacoma.

The terminal operator said that when workers throughout the supply chain are vaccinated and imports drop, the congestion in Long Beach, Los Angeles, will disappear.

Spring recovery?

Alan McCorkle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles, said that in the past six months, the container throughput of these terminals was close to record levels, but there was no overall congestion. This fact shows that if the peak season does not last for six consecutive months, they will have Ability to handle peak season cargo volume. He expects to return to normal in May or June.

Scott Schoenfeld, general manager of Fenix Marine Services in Los Angeles, said that Fenix is showing signs of improvement, so he is optimistic that congestion may be eased as early as April . The density of containers in the yard is not as high as late last year, and more truck drivers are able to transport containers every day.

However, container traffic is still rising, and as overloaded ships continue to arrive in Southern California, this trend will continue until at least next month. NVOCC consultant Jon Monroe said that the eastbound transpacific shipping company has deployed or will add 10 additional loading vessels in February, all deployed at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach. Judging from the latest data from the Los Angeles Signal platform, there was another peak in the surge in volume in the eighth week.

Volume surged in the eighth week

Jon Monroe pointed out that although more Chinese factories will continue to maintain at least part of their business this month to clear the backlog of merchandise orders compared to previous years, the total volume of the East Pacific trans-Pacific region should be greater than the previous six months. Months are less.

Scott Weiss, vice president of business development at Port Logistics Group, said that the 1.8 billion square feet of industrial and distribution space throughout Southern California is not fully loaded, just like last fall before the holiday season merchandise was transferred to stores across the country. However, the availability of space in warehouses and distribution facilities has been mixed. "Some warehouses are in a mess now, others are working well. I think the ratio is about 50-50,"

Scott Weiss said that productivity has generally declined, and warehouses across the region are experiencing labor shortages due to the new crown epidemic, but at the same time, freight volumes are still exceptionally strong. "Everyone I contacted is experiencing record sales and growth, but everyone is working hard to cope."

Weston LaBar, CEO of the Port Transportation Association, said that the current truck capacity is tight, and the availability of workers at both ends of the truck driver's route, the terminal and the distribution warehouse, has been challenged . However, when workers feel safe, they return in large numbers. LaBar said: "The most effective thing we can do right now is to vaccinate."

February 5, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

The Port of Los Angeles is also missing container!

For most of 2020, the Port of Los Angeles has been struggling to deal with the problem of container surplus. Now that there has been a dramatic turning point, the Port of Los Angeles has also experienced a shortage of containers.

The Port of Los Angeles is also missing boxes!

According to the latest statistics from Container xChange, a professional organization in the container monitoring field, the Container Availability Index for 40-foot containers in the Port of Los Angeles has dropped to 0.29.

Container xChange’s marketing director explained: “In the 49th week of 2020, the port’s availability index value for 20-foot containers and 40-foot containers plummeted to 0.27. Compared with the average index from week 1 to week 8 of 2020, these two Both containers dropped by 57%."

It is understood that when the container availability index is 0.5, it represents market balance. If it is less than 0.5, it represents a shortage of containers.

This means that the Port of Los Angeles has a serious shortage of containers.

In the previous Port of Los Angeles, due to the large increase in import volume and the epidemic factor, the port was congested on a large scale, and the efficiency of container turnover was very slow. At the peak, 10,000-15,000 containers were stranded at the terminal, and normal operations were severely affected.

According to a research report jointly issued by Container xChange and FraunhoferCML, a maritime logistics research organization, in the third quarter of 2020, there will be approximately 1.5 million containers in the United States with a turnover time of more than 115 days, while the normal average time should be less than 80 days.

Previously, due to the large backlog of containers in the Port of Los Angeles affecting the supply chain, liner companies conducted large-scale empty container deployment to ensure the normal operation of trans-Pacific routes.

As empty containers continue to be shipped back to the Asian market, the situation at the Port of Los Angeles has undergone a dramatic turn.

The industry also analyzes that the current shortage of containers in the Port of Los Angeles is related to the serious port congestion, the imbalance of market supply and demand, and the labor shortage caused by the outbreak of the Los Angeles Port.

Container xChange CEO Johannes Schlingmeier previously stated that since the summer of 2020, the U.S. container transportation supply chain has been under pressure, and the Port of Los Angeles is facing labor shortages caused by the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

Lars Jensen, CEO of Sea Intelligence, an industry consulting firm, believes: "The main reason for the lack of containers is port congestion."

Regarding when the container shortage will be resolved, Container xChange predicts: "In the next few weeks, as every link in the trans-Pacific route supply chain will face tremendous pressure, container supply will fluctuate further."

Nerijus Poskus, vice president of shipping at Flexport in the United States, believes that the shortage of containers may improve in the second half of 2021.

Lars Jensen said that the lack of containers in the Port of Los Angeles should be resolved before the summer of 2021.

He further explained: "After the international financial crisis in 2008, we also experienced a shortage of containers. The shortage of containers in 2010 took about 3 months from the appearance to the resolution. If we put it now Under the same background, it means that the current lack of containers in the Port of Los Angeles may also be resolved soon."

February 3, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Do LCL operation skills, common problems in customs declaration

6 operating skills for LCL cargo

1. "Consolidate" is the English word for LCL, which is referred to as "consol" in international trade and transportation.

2. LCL cargo generally cannot accept the designation of a specific shipping company. The shipping company only accepts the booking of FCL cargo, and does not directly accept the booking of LCL cargo, only through freight forwarders (individual strong shipping companies through their logistics The company) can book the space with the shipping company after consolidating the LCL cargo. Almost all LCL cargoes are transported through the “centralized handling and centralized distribution” of the freight forwarding company. The LCL distribution ports in East China are basically It is the port of Shanghai. General freight forwarders can only book space from a few shipping companies due to the limitation of cargo sources, and they rarely meet the needs of designated shipping companies. Therefore, when transacting LCL cargo, try not to accept designated shipping companies to avoid consignment Time can not meet the requirements.

3. When negotiating transactions with customers, pay special attention to the relevant transportation terms, so as not to find out that the transportation terms cannot be met after the other party's letter of credit is issued. In our daily operations, we often encounter L/C regulations stipulating that LCL cargo transportation does not accept freight forwarders’ bills of lading. Because shipping companies do not directly accept LCL cargo bookings, shipping companies’ ocean bills of lading are issued to freight forwarders, and freight forwarders re Issuing HOUSEB/L to the shipper, if the L/C regulations do not accept freight forwarding B/L, there will be no choice when the actual transportation is handled, which will cause L/C inconsistency. Another example, when we handled the transportation, we found a consignment note stating: Goods must be shipped in container on LCL basis and Bill of Lading to evidence the same and to show that all LCL. handling charges, THC and delivery order charges at that port of discharges are prepaid. It can be seen from the original text of the above paragraph of L/C that the consignee has passed all the expenses that should have been borne by him to the consignor. This is because the consignor and the customer did not negotiate in detail on the terms of transport during the trade negotiation. To.

4. The billing tons of LCL cargo shall be accurate. Before delivery of LCL cargo, the factory should be required to measure the weight and size of the goods as accurately as possible. When the goods are delivered to the warehouse designated by the forwarder, the warehouse will generally re-measure, and the re-measured size and weight will be charged. standard. If the factory changes the packaging, the factory should be required to notify in time. Don’t wait for the goods to be delivered to the freight forwarder’s warehouse and feed back the information through the forwarder. Often time is already very tight. If you change the customs declaration documents, it is easy to delay customs declaration or incur expedited customs declaration fees. And port charges.

5. In some ports, due to insufficient supply of LCL and high cost, freight forwarders specializing in LCL adopt the lowest charging standard for goods with a small volume. For example, the minimum is 2 freight tons, that is, less than 2 freight tons. All charges are based on 2 freight tons. Therefore, when the volume of cargo is small, some of these factors should be taken into consideration when the cargo is transacted at the port to avoid passiveness in the future.

6. For some routes and ports that are relatively remote, and customers propose to deliver LCL goods to inland points, it is best to consult before signing the transaction and confirm that there are shipping companies and freight forwarding companies that can handle these remote ports and inland points. Sign the contract after delivery and related expenses.

Summary of common problems in LCL customs declaration

The same foreign customer buys goods from different suppliers in China and then they are assembled into a cabinet and shipped to foreign customers. Sometimes two or three companies fight together, sometimes seven or eight companies fight together. In this case, it is usually a case of customs declaration. , To talk about common problems in customs declaration.

1. Customs declaration method-agent declaration and pay declaration

Because customers purchase from 3 or 4 different factories, some foreign customers find factories that do not have import and export rights for cheaper prices. Although the prices are cheap, they do not have customs declaration documents and need to pay for customs declaration. Therefore, at this time, there will be some agent declarations in the supplier, and some need to pay for customs declaration, especially for goods that require commodity inspection. Therefore, at this time, it is recommended that the goods with documents and the goods with documents are put together in a cabinet, and the goods that pay for customs declaration and pay for customs declaration are combined. Try not to have AB orders, some agents declare and some pay, that is, there are goods that need to be declared in a cabinet, and there are goods that need to be inspected but cannot be inspected and must be paid for declaration, because most ports do not support AB orders A few in the Pearl River Delta, such as Huangpu, Yantian, and Shekou, support AB orders.

2. Destination country

Some of the suppliers of the consolidation are required to declare customs for tax refunds, some do not require tax refunds for general trade small write-offs, and some require commodity inspections with customs clearance forms. At this time, we must pay attention to the customs declaration information of different suppliers. The destination country must be consistent.

There are often two situations. 1. The information to be refunded is more detailed, and the actual destination country is written, and the destination country for small verification of non-refundable tax is just typed. The destination country of the customs declaration data is different. 2. When going to Russia and waiting for some inland points, the unloading port is Poland, and the railway transfers to Russia. At this time, some of the customs declaration documents are written in Poland and some are written in Russia. Lead to inconsistent destination countries. At this time, the destination country Russia is always written, and Poland is only the port of discharge, not the final port of destination.

3. Value

When the cabinets are assembled, the value of each is different. For example, there are three stores A USD4W, B USD4W C, USD 3W

The value of the respective goods does not exceed 10W, and each does not need special export invoices, but because the total value of the goods exceeds 10W or 8W (depending on the port), some ports need to provide value-added tax invoices. I don’t understand the value of other factories. Sometimes the value-added tax invoice may not be mailed.

When the cabinets are assembled, the value of each is different. For example, there are three stores A USD14W, B USD4W C, USD 3W

The total value of the goods exceeds 10W US dollars. As A himself exceeds 10W, A also needs to provide special export invoices. Others only provide value-added tax invoices.

Fourth, the number of LCL

Generally speaking, the number of cabinets assembled will not exceed 8 pieces. In some places, it is 4 pieces. If a supplier purchases from more than a dozen factories, just a dozen factories have customs declaration materials, and this time it will be more than a dozen. Customs declaration materials are combined together for customs declaration. Generally, the customs support no more than 8 fights.

Five, the difference between tax refund and non-refund

There are three suppliers, two of which require tax refunds, and one does not require tax refunds. The total value of the goods exceeds 10W. Previously, only two factories that needed tax refunds would provide value-added tax invoices and special export invoices. Now, on the original basis, they also need non-tax refundable factories to provide Special export invoice.

Sixth, the issue of door closure

As there are more goods, to prevent confusion during customs declaration and inspection, it is best to remember what goods are loaded at the door of the cabinet.

Seven, put together a few cabinets

Sometimes the supplier has more goods and may have to install 2 cabinets.

1. At this time, pay attention to loading the goods of the same company in one container, don't pack A in several squares and B in several squares. If you are not satisfied, you must install two containers separately, and make one more copy of the customs declaration information.

2. Commodity inspection needs to correspond, such as ABC three, A has 70 cubic meters, B has 18 cubic meters, and C has 8 cubic meters. The large cabinet has 50 cubic meters for the A family, 18 cubic meters for the B family, 20 cubic meters for the A family and 8 cubic meters for the C family. When doing commodity inspection, A must do two commodity inspections.

3. Even the counter or separate reports. One of the cabinets was checked during customs declaration, but the other was not checked. Because the cabinets were connected, both cabinets could not be boarded. When reporting separately, those who are inspected will continue to check and wait for the next water, and those who are released can board the ship.

February 2, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Compared with the cost of shipping FCL and LCL, who is higher?

FCL and LCL

In the container transportation business, we call a container, an exporter, a consignee, and a destination port, and the goods that meet these "four ones" conditions are called FCL, and we call a container, exporter, and consignee. As long as one of the three items in the port of destination is two or more export goods, it is defined as LCL cargo.

The transportation cost of LCL and FCL is very different in terms of procedures, time and cost. The two are by no means "1+1=2, 1+2=3". Similar to the simple relationship between addend and sum, it is a series of strange "inequalities" such as "1+1>2, 1+2>3".

The customs clearance procedures for LCL cargo are more complicated than FCL cargo, and it takes longer

First, the whole container of goods exactly meets the minimum unit of customs inspection, sealing, and release of the exporting and importing countries. For a batch of goods, as long as the documents submitted by the exporter and importer are reasonable, legal and intact, the export customs and import customs will handle it. After the relevant procedures and relevant taxes and fees are collected, customs clearance will be released soon. The LCL cargo will not be so simple and fast. As long as the goods in the container have a single shipment document that is faulty, the export customs will not release the goods. This is because the export customs must seal the exported containers before allowing the loaded containers to leave the country. Therefore, in the same container, the failure of any one of the goods to clear customs will inevitably affect the timely export and transportation of other goods.

Second, LCL cargo is far less extensive and flexible than FCL cargo. It requires additional solicitation by the transportation company and a reasonable combination of some conditions such as the port of shipment, port of destination, delivery date, variety, volume, and weight of the cargo. They are all suitable for exporting goods in the same container. These requirements are very difficult to implement and require a long time. If the transport company consigned by the cargo owner is not strong enough, then the time for cargo transportation will be delayed even longer.

Third, under normal circumstances, FCL cargo can be shipped directly at inland ports, while LCL cargo is only suitable for delivery at developed coastal ports due to relatively few inland sources and relatively more coastal sources. This will undoubtedly add a lot of extra trouble to the exporter. According to the relevant regulations of the Chinese government, exported goods must pass the inspection of the Commodity Inspection Bureau in the place of production and the place of export declaration. If the goods are declared for export within the scope of the province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government) where the goods are produced, only one commodity inspection is required for a batch of goods. Otherwise, if it is a customs declaration in another place, a batch of legally inspected export commodities must pass two inspections before the customs will release it.

LCL cargo is more expensive than FCL

Under normal circumstances, the freight and miscellaneous costs of FCL transportation in sea freight generally include three items: freight, transportation surcharges and port miscellaneous charges. The freight and transportation surcharges for LCL and FCL should be the same. The difference in cost is only in the assembling of the transported goods at the port of shipment and the unpacking at the port of destination.

It stands to reason that these two costs should not be very high. However, due to the huge differences in the level of labor costs between countries and regions in the world, exporters have little or no knowledge of the specific differences. The original LCL cargo ratio The freight cost of the whole container is very reasonable by adding a certain percentage of LCL, unpacking and storage fees on the basis of the overall consistency. However, in order to earn higher profits, carriers often use "fuzzy The method of "learning" does not specify what items will be charged in the quotation, but only generally according to the destination port to which the type of goods are shipped, and the amount of each freight ton is charged, and the port miscellaneous charges are reported temporarily. What's more, the carrier has no obligation to explain, and the shipper has no room for bargaining. The amount of charge depends on the specific circumstances.

In addition, it should be noted that in import and export commodity trade, the larger the quantity and total value of each transaction, the lower the transaction cost. Conversely, the smaller the quantity and total value, the higher the transaction cost.

Compared with FCL cargo, the quantity and total value of LCL cargo are generally smaller. Therefore, from this perspective, the transaction cost of LCL cargo must be higher than FCL cargo. This is because the cost and mailing fee of the finished sample, the communication fee such as fax and telephone, the notification fee of the letter of credit, the customs declaration fee of the import and export goods, the certificate of origin, etc. are all based on the number of copies rather than the business. The size of the amount to be charged. When these business expenses are finally allocated to transaction costs, the unit costs with a large transaction volume will have a small share, and the unit costs with a small transaction volume will have a large share. We should be aware of this.

February 1, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

More than 300,000 containers on 67 ships are waiting to be unloaded! Record congestion! Trans-Pacific route capacity reaches its upper limit and is on the verge of collapse

The volume of containers in the Asian-American trans-Pacific trade has reached its limit. Large-scale port congestion in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is forcing carriers to take extreme measures. Today, ship voyages are cancelled not because of insufficient demand, but because ships are waiting for berths at anchorages; as more and more container ships arrive every day, the backlog of Southern California ports has reached a record level of 67 ships. This is the first time a ship has berthed outside the San Pedro Bay anchorage in 17 years, and the congestion is expected to continue until at least mid-to-late February.

When the ship is delayed due to long waiting in the port, the carrier will usually add "recovery vessels" to replace and maintain the weekly voyage. But now there are no more "recovery vessels" left. Hapag-Lloyd said, "Since our fleet has been fully deployed and has exceeded its capacity, unfortunately this is not an option at this time."

Therefore, Hapag-Lloyd cancelled 19 voyages in February. "It needs to be emphasized that the ships will not be idle at any time, and we have set sail as much as possible," the company emphasized.

Urgent need to resume suspended voyages

"The reliability of the sailing schedule is too poor. At this time, we should not'withdraw the capacity and stop sailing', but'need to resume the voyage as planned.'" said Simon Sundboell, founder of eeSea.

Due to the decrease in export volume during the Lunar New Year holiday, carriers usually suspend their flights at this time of the year. In order to deal with the backlog of export goods at Chinese ports, carriers initially chose to guarantee voyages during the Spring Festival. However, the congestion in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach caused the carrier to have no vessels to deploy. This means that the congestion problem in Asia will take longer to resolve.

Real-time blank sailing data display provided by eeSea platform. As of last week, compared with January, the Asian-American route has dropped by 11% from January. Although the demand for goods continues to rise.

In a webinar hosted by the freight forwarder Flexport last week, Lars Jensen, CEO of Seaintelligence Consulting, explained: “When all the ships are waiting outside the port to berth, they can’t return to the voyage, so they can’t start what they should have set off. Voyage. Suspension is not an option but a necessity."

San Pedro Bay is congested

At any time since the beginning of this year, no less than 30 container ships have been anchored at the San Pedro Bay berth near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

According to Southern California Maritime Information on January 31, all anchorages in Los Angeles/Long Beach and all emergency anchorages near Huntington are full! There are 67 container ships in the port area, setting a new record. More than 10 containers will arrive from January 1st to January 2nd. The average waiting time for berthing has already exceeded 7 days.

In addition, due to the storm and bad weather last week, many of these ships had to leave the anchorage and go to sea. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Ocean Exchange, said that in such a long period of time, with so many ships and such harsh sea winds and sea conditions, what could be more complicated than this.

Port congestion is caused by a large number of incoming cargo and dockers infected with COVID. A spokesperson for the ILWU dockworkers union said that the number of members of the union who tested positive has increased to 803, a 16% increase from 694 on January 17.

Nerijus Poskus, head of global shipping at Flexport, said: “They are unable to provide timely services to ships, which leads to 10-14 days or even longer waiting times, depending on the terminal.” He added: “ As of last week, there are Nearly 300,000 20-foot TEUs are waiting to be unloaded."

According to the data from the Los Angeles Port signal platform as of the 29th local time in the United States: 17 ships are at anchor with an average anchoring time of 7.3 days; 13 ships are waiting to be pre-anchored.

Jensen said: "As long as there is such a waiting time, it is equivalent to canceling all the services of the five transpacific shipping companies." "The impact is huge."

Global shipping on-time rate has severely declined

The reliability of the on-time rate of global shipping has dropped to about 50%, while the normal level is 70%-80%. Receiving a box on time is not much better than flipping a coin. To be worse in reality, blank voyages are not considered in the schedule reliability data. It also does not consider "rolled" cargo-pushing to the next voyage.

Ocean Insights aggregates the freight volume data of the world's top liner companies in the world's top ports. According to published data, the share of ships that did not sail as originally planned rose to 37% in December. This is a significant increase from 29% in July and 25% in December 2019.

An importer transporting goods from China via Los Angeles said: “The shipping time that normally took 28 days has now been increased by 60 days. The container shipped in November last year has not yet reached its final destination.” All of this, American consumers should See the increasing shortage of goods on the shelves. In turn, this will further boost import demand in 2021.

The dawn of hope is here

One of the main reasons for the current shortage of capacity is the shortage of containers. But there is also a silver lining. The Container x-Change container availability index tracking shows that the availability of 40-foot high containers (40HCs) is still extremely low. However, the availability of 20-foot dry containers (20DC) and 40-foot standard dry containers (40DC) this month has increased significantly this month.

David Amezquita, head of data tracking and analysis at Container xChange, asserted that the index "finally shows a positive trend." The company added that the upcoming Chinese New Year may "finally become a turning point."

Index levels below 0.5 are considered shortages. In the third week of January, Shanghai’s 20DC index rose to 0.34, while the 40DC index rose to 0.37. The 40HCs index was still very low at 0.11.

When is it expected to return to normal?

Jensen expressed his belief that the challenge of container equipment will be solved soon. Chinese factories have been busy producing new equipment. "What is happening now is exactly the same as what we saw in 2010 after the financial crisis. If you look at 2010, you will be delighted to find that it took about three months from the appearance of the problem to its resolution. According to the situation, this should be resolved before the Chinese New Year.

"This port congestion has a lot to do with the ability to restore empty containers to a balanced state. This may cause delays in resolving congestion."

As more and more containers are manufactured and put into operation, liner companies should also work hard to resume normal voyages. Jensen said: "The carrier seems to be planning to use the time after the Chinese New Year to return the vessel to its original plan." "If this works and solves the port congestion problem, we can restore [service reliability] within a few months To normal levels. But this is just an optimistic view."

Volume continues to climb this week

Although major container ports across the United States have experienced a certain degree of congestion, with the arrival of imported goods from Asia, Southern California ports are experiencing the most serious congestion. According to data from the Los Angeles port signal platform, the number of imported standard containers per week has increased to 150,000 to 160,000 TEU; while the neighboring Port of Long Beach shows that the number of imported standard containers per week is 90,000 to 100,000 TEU, and the total volume of imports and exports and empty containers Nearly 200,000 per week.

Analysts who are concerned about the port situation expect that freight volumes will remain stable until at least mid-February, when there may be a slight stagnation, as China's manufacturing and shipment volumes usually decline during and after the Spring Festival holiday. However, many shipping companies hope to use this intermittent period to reduce the backlog. The National Retail Federation, which tracks retailers’ imports, predicts in its annual port tracking data that this quiet period may not arrive until April, and then it will appear briefly as retailers prepare for the summer. Strong rise.

January 29, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Large-scale congestion in Los Angeles/Long Beach will continue for at least three months. Shipping companies will suspend part of West Coast services and change the demurrage-free time

Due to the surge in imports, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest ports in the United States, are continuing to bear the pressure of a large number of containers entering the ports. At the same time, the ports are seriously congested and a large number of ships are waiting to berth.

The large accumulation of container ships near Long Beach and Los Angeles is having a knock-on effect on the entire container industry. It is an uncertain factor when the market will return to normal. At the same time, shipping companies are planning to reduce trans-Pacific services and change demurrage time.

At present, there are 19 ships berthing at the Port of Los Angeles, and 14 ships are waiting outside the terminal for berths. According to Nerijus Poskus, vice president of shipping at Flexport, in the last week, 300,000 TEUs were waiting to be unloaded at the port. This has a great impact on other markets where there is a clear shortage of containers.

Large-scale congestion in Los Angeles/Long Beach will continue for at least three months. Shipping companies will suspend part of West Coast services and change the demurrage-free time — Ships waiting in and near the port

"Congestion is unlikely to continue into the second half of 2021, but it will last at least two or three months, or even four months . In the port of Los Angeles and other matters worse, there are 33 ships waiting, there may be 50 ships within a few weeks While waiting, all these additional ships will also enter the United States. Therefore, these containers will not return to Asia soon.” Poskus said on Tuesday.

Part of the voyage to the US West was cancelled

According to Lars Jensen, CEO of Seaintelligence Consulting, the large-scale accumulation of ships on the west coast of the United States is having an impact on shipping services. He pointed out that Hapag-Lloyd will announce the cancellation of 21 Asian and North American routes in February this week. Between voyages.

Jensen said it was a decision that had no choice due to delays.

In addition, due to increased congestion at the Los Angeles port, which has affected delivery guarantees, CMA CGM appears to be shutting down its transpacific express service.

According to Alphaliner, the French shipping company has closed its trans-Pacific premium SEA-X service and plans to open a new route between China and the West Coast competing port: Oakland and Seattle.

If the container fails to be shipped out at the Los Angeles terminal before the agreed date, the SEA-X service will provide the shipper with a refund.

Alphaliner pointed out: "Obviously, the serious congestion at the port of Los Angeles makes it difficult for CMA CGM, in fact, almost all shipping companies to guarantee on-time delivery."

It is reported that the SEA-X service operates outside the Ocean Alliance’s trans-Pacific network and has deployed 6 ships with a capacity of 3,700-6,300 teu. Alphaliner learned that three of the ships have been transferred to the new Golden Gate Bridge service. The port call will be Shanghai-Yantian-Oakland-Seattle-Kaohsiung.

The last stop of the SEA-X service will be the CMA CGM Elbe round, which will arrive in Los Angeles on February 13.

The SEA-X service was launched in the second half of last year. The target customers are shippers who are willing to pay extra to avoid traffic congestion in Southern California. However, according to Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research at consulting firm Drewry, this congestion has spread since then and could lead to the complete end of advanced services in the industry.

"Congestion has created demand for high-end products, but the problem has deteriorated so fast that it may be difficult to fulfill the promise and be forced to refund the guaranteed shipping part (at least one carrier will bear a 200% refund )."

Change the free time of demurrage at U.S. ports

From March 1, 2021, Hapag-Lloyd will modify the free time for import demurrage in the United States as follows:

▍U.S. West Coast Port: Los Angeles/Long Beach

▍American West Coast Port: Oakland

▍Port of Jacksonville, USA (Jacksonville):

▍Port Newark：MAHER TERMINAL

Legend:

DOD = Day of Discharge DOD

WD = Working Day for the USA (excludes Sat, Sun, Bank Holiday)

WD = Working Day for Canada (excludes Sat, Sun)

CD = Calendar Day

January 28, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Do you know all these 13 trade terms of freight forwarders? Responsibilities must be clearly delineated

The basic terms of freight forwarders are EXW, FCA, FAS, FOB, CFR, CIF, CPT, CIP, DAF, DES, DEQ, DDU, DDP.

These 13 trade terms, from left to right, the seller’s obligations are getting bigger, while the buyer’s on the contrary. In other words, among the above-mentioned trade terms, the seller bears the least responsibility under the EXW term, and the seller bears the most responsibility under the DDP term.

EXW ex works

It means that when the seller delivers the goods to the buyer at its location or other designated locations (such as a workshop, factory or warehouse), the delivery is completed, and the seller does not go through export customs clearance procedures or load the goods on any means of transportation.

This term is the term with the least liability of the seller.

FCA Cargo Delivery Carrier

It means that the seller only needs to deliver the goods to the carrier designated by the buyer at the designated place and complete the export customs clearance procedures to complete the delivery.

It should be noted that the choice of delivery location will have an impact on the obligations of loading and unloading at that location. The term can be used for various modes of transportation, including multimodal transportation.

FAS Alongside Delivery

It means that the seller delivers the goods to the side of the ship at the designated port of shipment, that is, the delivery is completed. The buyer must bear all risks of loss or damage to the goods since then.

FOB term

It refers to the name of the goods + the quantity of the goods + the unit price + FOB + the port of shipment. The transfer of risk is when it crosses the ship's rail. As the goods did not cross the ship’s rail, the liability should be borne by the seller company.

If the boom breaks during the re-lifting process and the cement does not fall into the sea but onto the ship board, the risk is transferred to the buyer, and the buyer’s company should bear the responsibility.

CFR cost and freight

It means that the seller completes delivery when the goods pass the ship’s rail at the port of shipment, and the seller must pay the freight and expenses required to transport the goods to the designated port of destination.

However, the risk of loss or damage to the goods after delivery, as well as any additional costs caused by various events, is transferred from the seller to the buyer.

This term only applies to sea or inland water transportation. If the parties do not intend to deliver the goods across the ship’s rail, the CPT term should be used.

CIF cost, insurance and freight

It means that the seller completes the delivery when the goods pass the ship’s rail at the port of shipment. This term only applies to maritime and inland water transportation.

If the parties do not intend to deliver the goods across the ship’s rail, the CIP term should be used.

CPT freight paid to (designated destination)

It means that the seller delivers the goods to its designated carrier (the goods are delivered to the carrier), but the seller must also pay the freight to transport the goods to the destination. That is, the buyer bears all risks and other expenses after delivery.

CIP freight and insurance

It means that the seller delivers the goods to the designated international forwarder, but the seller must also pay the freight for the goods to the destination, that is, the buyer bears all risks and additional costs after the seller has delivered the goods.

The term can be applied to various modes of transportation, including multimodal transportation.

DAF Frontier Delivery

It means that when the seller is at the designated location and specific delivery point at the border, before the border of the country’s customs border, the goods that are still on the delivery vehicle and have not been unloaded are handed over to the buyer for disposal, and the export customs clearance procedures have been completed but not yet The delivery is completed when the import customs clearance procedures are handled.

DES Delivered on board the destination port

It means that at the designated port of destination, the goods are handed over to the buyer on the ship for disposal, but the seller will complete the delivery without going through the customs clearance procedures for the import of the goods.

This term can only be used when the goods are transported by sea or inland waterway or multimodal transport on the ship at the port of destination.

DEQ destination port terminal delivery

It means that the seller only needs to deliver the goods to the carrier designated by the buyer at the designated place and complete the export customs clearance procedures to complete the delivery.

DDU Unpaid Delivery

It means that the seller delivers the goods to the buyer at the designated destination for disposal without going through import procedures or unloading the goods from the delivery means of transport, that is, the delivery is completed.

This term applies to various modes of transportation, but when the goods are delivered on a ship or wharf at the port of destination, the term DES or DEQ should be used.

DDP delivery after duty

It means that the seller completes import customs clearance procedures at the designated destination, and delivers the goods that have not been unloaded on the delivery means of transport to the buyer to complete the delivery.

Because the seller bears the greatest responsibility under the DDP term, if the seller cannot obtain the import license directly or indirectly, this term should not be used; if the parties want the buyer to bear the import risks and costs, the DDU term should be used.

This term applies to various modes of transportation, but when the goods are delivered on a ship or wharf at the port of destination, the term DES or DEQ should be used.

January 28, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Refuse to load goods! The shipping company is shipping the empty containers back to China… The problem of missing containers is solved!

In recent days, the shipping industry has been in a panic due to the shortage of containers, and ocean freight has soared abnormally, which has affected the supply chain of the manufacturing industry.

However, currently, according to an indicator that tracks global shipping containers, the global shipping shortage seems to be showing signs of easing.

Refuse to load goods! The shipping company is shipping the empty containers back to China... The problem of missing containers is solved!

The "Available Container Index" developed by the online platform Container xChange shows that this index can be maintained between 0.35 and 0.38 until the Chinese New Year in mid-February.

This index: if it falls at 0.5, it means that the supply and demand of containers is in balance; if it is lower than 0.5, it means that the supply of containers is in short supply; if it is higher than 0.5, it means that the supply is oversupply.

When the shortage of containers was the most serious last month, the index fell to an ultra-low level of 0.06 to 0.13 depending on the size of the container, and the index began to rebound this month.

It is reported that the imbalance of container shortages in 2020 will be particularly serious in Shanghai. As the Chinese factories resumed production after the epidemic eased, the demand for goods exported to the United States surged, but no empty containers were found to deliver goods out of the port.

But Container xChange said that the situation is now moving towards a normal level .

"One of the main reasons for the improvement in the imbalance between supply and demand is that the shipping industry has made every effort to transport a large number of empty containers from the world's major congested ports back to China. The Lunar New Year may become a turning point for the lack of containers. The Lunar New Year holiday starts on February 11. "

According to media reports, at present, many shipping companies are eager to ship empty containers back to China from the Port of Los Angeles in the United States and refuse to carry American goods. This has largely alleviated the current shortage of containers, but it has caused the export of American agricultural products to suffer.

For this reason, the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has stated that it will investigate shipping companies' refusal to load American agricultural products and transport empty containers to them. If the investigation is unreasonable, it will impose a fine.

US financial website CNBC reported that from October to November last year, it was the peak season for American agricultural products exports. Shipping companies refused to carry hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American agricultural products exports, and would rather take the time to ship empty containers back to mainland China ports to load profits. Higher Chinese export products.

So FMC launched an investigation and reviewed data from several key ports in California, New York, and New Jersey to find out whether the shipping company’s refusal to carry violated the Maritime Act.

According to FMC's survey, data from the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, New York and the Port of New Jersey, in October and November last year, it is estimated that as many as 178,000 standard containers were rejected. CNBC estimated the value of the affected agricultural products based on the export price of each TEU soybean/oil seed/grain item on the U.S. Bureau of Statistics website in the Port of Los Angeles.

However, industry insiders said that although shipping companies’ refusal to carry US agricultural products has caused losses to US exports, it has indeed alleviated the shortage of containers in global shipping to a certain extent in the near future, which is expected to be alleviated in the Lunar New Year.

January 28, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

note! During the Spring Festival, the shipping company will cancel several Nordic voyages, and the time for collecting empty containers in China will be extended, and bulk cargo ships will load container cargo

Ships from Asia to Europe have recently undergone some new changes. Some shipping companies have cancelled multiple voyages, some have added new services, and more and more bulk cargo ships are carrying containerized cargo.

According to reports, HMM will put in an additional 5000 TEU cargo ship on the European route from Busan to Hamburg at the end of this month to meet the shipper’s cargo delivery requirements.

In addition, the shipping company China United Shipping (CU Lines) announced its first direct European route, maiden voyage on February 6, will provide independent services to the Nordic region and deploy a series of small feeder ships.

▍The 2M Alliance will cancel several Nordic voyages in the next week or two

The shipping company will cancel multiple flights to Northern Europe during the Spring Festival next month. This is a blow to the troubled cargo owners because they have paid a huge price to secure space in the voyage.

2M alliance partners Maersk and MSC plan to cancel three public voyages from Asia to Northern Europe in the 5th-7th week. One of the ships will be allowed to be postponed until next week, and the existing reservations will be kept. Ocean Alliance member CMA CGM will also skip three loops in the same period.

MSC said, “Due to the slowdown in demand during the Spring Festival and the severe congestion in the entire supply chain, it is necessary to take measures to cancel sailing.”

Maersk advises its customers that in order to cope with severe port congestion and container restrictions, it is necessary to use suspension to improve the reliability of shipping schedules, so as to release these services to restore planned shipping schedule measures.

Suspended voyages: Maersk Herrera on the AE55/Griffin loop scheduled to depart from Shanghai on February 11; Maersk Enshi (AE6/Lion) scheduled to leave Busan on February 13; and departure from Ningbo on February 15 Estelle Maersk (AE7 / Condor).

note! During the Spring Festival, the shipping company will cancel several Nordic voyages, and the time for collecting empty containers in China will be extended, and bulk cargo ships will load container cargo

A shipping company source said that he believes that 2M is more about slowing down the overheated supply chain and alleviating the pressure of congestion in the Nordic containers and ports.

"I can only represent our ships. During the Spring Festival, they are all fully booked." The source said, "In addition, too much cargo has been dumped recently. This cannot be a problem of reduced demand, so I guess , They want to restore a certain timetable by cutting voyages."

Indeed, Simon Sundboell, the founder of the liner database eeSea, said that the reliability of this route is worse than what we have seen in a long time.

He added: "These suspensions are necessary and restoration measures need to be arranged. They are not meant to consume capacity."

At the same time, according to the latest investigation by Container xChange, the serious container shortage crisis is alleviating. Although the container availability index (CAx) in December hit a record low, Shanghai has improved significantly this month.

"In January, the availability of 40-foot-high cubic containers increased by 37.5%, while the standard 40-foot-cubic container even increased to 200%. CAx showed a positive trend for shippers and freight forwarders looking for containers in Shanghai. With the increase in container availability Significant increase and Shanghai is returning to normal levels.” said David Amezquita, head of data insights, adding that similar situations have occurred in other major hubs in China.

▍The empty container release time will be extended from 7 days to 10 days

It is reported that Hapag-Lloyd will take temporary measures in order to optimize the supply of containers and meet customer needs during the upcoming Spring Festival. From now on, the empty container release window in Mainland China will be extended from the current 7 days to 10 days.

The empty container pick-up time at all Chinese ports has been adjusted from 7 days before the estimated sailing date to 10 days, which will take effect from now until January 31, 2021.

From February 1, 2021, it will be further extended to 14 days before the estimated sailing schedule until further notice.

The specific box types at the following special locations will be kept for 10 days and are subject to change without notice.

Shenzhen: 20' Dry

Ningbo: 40' Dry, 40'HC

Shanghai: 40' Dry, 40'HC

▍More and more containerized goods are cancelled and switched to other types of ships

Chartering expert Ahlers said that the rebound in bulk cargo transportation will bring benefits to secondary ports and short sea shipping. The company said: "New opportunities for bulk carriers, multi-purpose ships and ro-ro ships are emerging."

According to reports, last week, freight forwarders increasingly wanted to use multi-purpose ships to avoid a series of delays and cost issues, which disrupted Asia-Europe container trade-in some cases, they gave up boxes, and I chose bulk groceries.

In addition, the de-containerization trend seems to be gaining momentum on intra-Asia routes. On some routes, bulk commodity shippers accustomed to the lowest freight rates suddenly face bills much higher than in previous years.

Ahlers said that in Southeast Asia, cargo that has been shipped in containers for decades is now being transferred to bulk carriers.

Chartering business manager Senthil Nayagam said: “Due to the shortage of containers and high freight rates, goods such as sawn wood and plywood are turning to bulk general cargo ships.”

He said, for example, the cost of exporting plywood from Malaysia to Colombo has increased from US$400/TEU to US$1,025. “Therefore traders hope to transport them in bulk in the next three to four months until the situation improves. "

Another example is the shipment of goods from China to Russia. Mr. Nayagam said that Ahlers' original plan to reach St. Petersburg or use maritime rail services had to be cancelled and switched to other ports and offshore services.

He added: “Freight forwarders are forced to find unconventional options, such as transporting goods to a triple container terminal, and then looking for different short-sea solutions, trying to use smaller coastal bulk cargo vessels to transport the goods to the final destination. Land."

For many industries, transportation costs are not the only consideration in determining mode switching.

Mr. Nayagam said: “Inventory costs, potential fines related to late delivery, and factories' urgent need for raw materials to keep them running are all factors. For example, summer fashion needs to be listed in stores in time.”

"We believe that the container market situation will return to normal again, but it is not yet certain when it will return to normal. At the same time, we will continue to see more and more'traditional container' cargo shifted to other modes of transportation, including bulk cargo."

January 27, 2021 / By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Soaring container ship freight rates threaten the global economic outlook?

Entering 2021, the imbalance between supply and demand in the container shipping market has still not been resolved, and the persistently high container shipping rate is becoming a major threat to the global economic outlook this year.

The shortage of containers is difficult to alleviate, and the freight rates of various routes remain high

Affected by the epidemic and the peak shipments before the Spring Festival, the volume of goods on the European and North American routes remained high, the port congestion, and the lack of containers made container turnover difficult, and the imbalance of supply and demand in the container shipping market has not been effectively alleviated. The freight rates of all routes around the world have remained high.

Recently, due to the epidemic situation, the port congestion has caused the average space utilization rate of container ships from Shanghai Port to Europe to continue to be fully loaded. Most ships maintain the original freight rates, and only the spot market booking prices have dropped slightly. According to statistics from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, the freight rate (sea freight and ocean freight surcharges) for exports from Shanghai to the European basic port market on January 15 was 4,413 USD/TEU, down 0.9% from the previous period; the freight rate for Shanghai exports to the Mediterranean basic port market (sea freight) And shipping surcharge) is 4296 US dollars/TEU, the same as the previous period.

The North American route also has bottlenecks in container transportation. The average space utilization rate of ships from Shanghai Port to the East and West US routes is nearly full. The freight rates of the routes are stable, and the spot market booking prices have increased slightly. On January 15th, the freight rates (sea freight and ocean freight surcharges) for Shanghai exports to the basic ports of the West and East US ports were 4,054 US dollars/FEU and 4,800 US dollars/FEU, respectively. The West US routes rose slightly by 0.9% and the US East routes rose 1.1%. .

The South American epidemic is severe, the import demand is large, and the transportation demand is high. Consolidation companies are increasing overtime shipping schedules to ease the shortage of capacity. The average space utilization of ships on the Shanghai Port to South America route is over 95%, and most of the flights are fully loaded. Some shipping companies have increased booking prices, and the spot market freight rates have risen slightly. On January 15th, the freight rate (sea freight and ocean freight surcharge) for exports from Shanghai to the basic port market in South America was 8907 US dollars/TEU, up 3.2% from the previous period.

In Asia, the two major port congestion problems in Singapore and Malaysia, Port Klang are the most serious. Many European or Middle Eastern routes skipped these two ports and did not call. Therefore, freight forwarders had to ship customers to Singapore or Port Klang. The cargoes of South Korea will be imported and exported from the neighboring Johor Port. It is estimated that Singapore, Port Klang and Ho Chi Minh City may rise before the Spring Festival holiday on the Southeast Asian route.

At present, there is no news about the increase of freight rates on the routes of Europe and Southeast Asia. However, because of the obvious shortage of space, the purchase fee for the US route remains high. The purchase fee for the US Eastern route was increased to US$4,000/FEU in mid-January, but so far there has been a purchase fee of US$6000/FEU. The purchase fee has reached US$2500. In addition, the port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach have recently reported that hundreds of dockers have been diagnosed. The multi-billion dollar logistics economy of the two ports may be severely slowed down. The situation is even more unoptimistic.

Consolidation costs have risen several times, and the global economy may be profoundly affected

Most people in the industry believe that the problem of imbalance between supply and demand in the container shipping market will continue at least until the first quarter of this year. Nerijus Poskus, deputy general manager of Flexport, a San Francisco freight and customs brokerage company, estimates that the current global container gap has reached 500,000, which is almost equivalent to the world’s 25 largest vessels. Compared with last year, the loading capacity of 20,000 boxes of ships may increase the pressure on shipping costs this year.

Experts pointed out that it is expected that a large number of empty containers in Europe and the United States will be shipped back one to three months after the Spring Festival in April and May. The shortage of containers is expected to be alleviated, but the specifics are still difficult to say. In the follow-up, the impact of the lack of containers can be judged by three major signals: retail inventory, global ship on-time rate, and the latest container ship supply and demand. If the retail inventory level remains at a low level, it indicates that demand is still strong; if the ship on-time rate starts to rise from a low point, it means that the port congestion has been eased.

According to Alphaliner’s latest estimates in December last year, the global container loading and unloading volume this year has increased by 3.5% higher than last year; the capacity supply has increased by 3.9% annually, and the gap between supply and demand has narrowed, which shows the oversupply of the container shipping market in the past decade The phenomenon has been reversed. Although this year seems to be a year of healthy supply and demand, if the epidemic breaks out again, the market will be full of uncertainties.

Strange phenomena are frequent under the epidemic. Although the global economy is still severely hit by the epidemic, the container shipping industry has experienced the most severe price increase in history, and the shortage of supply has intensified the upward trend of container freight rates. Comprehensive data shows that the current freight rates of popular routes such as the European and American routes have increased by several times. The Australian routes have increased substantially by nearly 9 times, and the European routes have also soared by more than 5 times, even for Southeast Asian routes. Prices have also risen, and have increased more than four times since the end of last year.

Some manufacturers frankly said that they can no longer afford the current level of freight rates, and it is even more difficult to pass on the additional costs caused by the soaring freight rates to customers. The goods that were supposed to be delivered in the fourth quarter of last year have not yet been able to ship due to lack of containers and no flags. However, the warehouse can no longer accommodate the piles of goods. Some European countries even bid 8,000 euros (about 63,000 yuan). No usable container can be found. This is a situation that has not been seen in the past few decades.

Obviously, the soaring freight rate caused by the imbalance of supply and demand has affected the operation level from the supply chain level. The company is forced to reduce production or increase inventory pressure, which affects cash flow, and even affects the entire industrial chain because of the reduction in orders. The demand side. Consumers and companies have to bear the increased cost of shipping freight, which may have a longer impact on the economy than the problem of "missing containers".

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Do you know all these 13 trade terms of freight forwarders? Responsibilities must be clearly delineated

Refuse to load goods! The shipping company is shipping the empty containers back to China… The problem of missing containers is solved!

note! During the Spring Festival, the shipping company will cancel several Nordic voyages, and the time for collecting empty containers in China will be extended, and bulk cargo ships will load container cargo

Soaring container ship freight rates threaten the global economic outlook?