/ By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Where did the empty containers go?

In the past few months, due to the severe shortage of available empty containers, the global supply chain has been hit, causing exporters to have a headache. However, new research shows that there is an obvious problem in the container supply chain-empty containers stay in warehouses for an average of 45 days, while in China, the average time for each idle container is more than two months.

The research project of German company FraunhoferCML and Container xChange shows that although China and the United States urgently need containers, the average residence time of empty containers in warehouses is 61-66 days, which is much higher than the global average of 45 days.

 

The east coast of the United States is usually the location of surplus container equipment (the 40DC container availability value was 0.7 last year), but the container availability rate dropped to 0.43, indicating that there are actually fewer containers than needed.

The researchers said that compared with the Middle East (21 days on average) and Europe (23 days on average), the high standard deviations of 85 days in North America and 129 days in Asia indicate that in many cases, containers stay in warehouses longer than average. Much more.

 

Container xChange is a platform that connects users and suppliers. The platform stated that the availability of containers across China is still at a record low, while the surge in shipping containers from Asia has overwhelmed US ports, and retailers are eager to put their products on the shelves.

Not only is there a serious shortage of 40-foot tall containers (hc) in the shipping market, but there is also a shortage of 40-foot standard containers, and even 20-foot containers are sometimes in short supply.

The container availability rate of 40HCs is only 0.05 CAx (container availability rate) points, compared with 0.63 in the same period last year.

Asia's container manufacturing industry is working overtime to produce, which accounts for 45% of the global container manufacturing market. China International Marine Containers, the world's largest container manufacturer, announced an increase in its orders.

The factory is stepping up container building, and container orders have been scheduled to the first quarter of next year. Even so, the demand for millions of containers has made it impossible for container manufacturing to quench its thirst. The world's three largest container leasing giants have issued a warning that the shortage of containers will continue for four months.

 

Chinese shippers and freight forwarders all over the world "seeking" empty containers, but where did the empty containers go? The answer is simple, it is blocked in other ports.

While the Asian port and shipping industry is desperately desperate for empty containers, although there is a shortage of shipping capacity, price increases can be used to push shipping companies to cancel suspending, refilling, and increase shipping capacity; however, a large number of containers full of cargo are seriously stranded in European and American ports and warehouses. , Unable to move.

In order to alleviate the serious imbalance in equipment, shipping companies have adopted an active strategy for exports to Europe and the United States, suspending orders, and preferring to use as many empty containers as possible to fill return ships.

In fact, in order to prevent all but the most expensive goods, European exporters to Asia are required to pay more than $5,000 per 40-foot container to ensure shipment in December. A British freight forwarder said that many shipping companies now refuse to accept export orders before mid-January. "Our customers are willing to pay such a high freight, but due to port congestion, we are still working hard to get the boxes away. Some boxes have been on the dock for more than four weeks and still don't know when they will be shipped."

At the same time, the urgently needed empty containers in Asia are scattered in warehouses across Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, where troubled ports have to restrict container delivery to already overcrowded terminals.

The current shortage of containers is a once-in-a-century problem in the history of the global supply chain, and it is basically unsolvable in the short term.

/ By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Where are the empty boxes that can’t be grabbed?

The port is not the boss, the ship is not the boss, and the cargo is the boss. This is a "golden sentence" circulating in the port and shipping industry. However, the freight forwarder who has been busy in the front line of cargo booking may tell you that at this moment of chaos in this industry, the port is not the boss, the ship is not the boss, and the cargo is not the boss. You can't get the empty space if you grab the head. The box is the boss .

In recent weeks, due to a severe shortage of empty containers, some container ships sailing from Asia to Europe cannot even be fully utilized. A shipping source said, “Recently, we have to vacate some spaces because China does not have enough containers to meet freight demand.” Almost all transport companies have reported that they have a serious shortage of 40-foot high containers (hc) and 40 There is also a shortage of standard containers, and even 20-foot containers are sometimes in short supply.

The latest container availability index report from Container xChange shows that the availability of containers in various ports in China is at a record low. From the perspective of the container availability index, the index higher than 0.5 indicates a surplus of empty container inventory, and lower than 0.5 indicates a shortage of empty containers. The current availability of 40-foot containers in China is only 0.05 CAx points, compared with 0.63 points in the same period last year .

Chinese shippers and freight forwarders all over the world "seeking" empty containers, but where did the empty containers go? The answer is simple, it is blocked in other ports.

While the Asian port and shipping industry is desperately desperate for empty containers, warehouses across Europe, especially in the UK, are filled with "immobile" boxes in troubled ports and overcrowded docks.

Affected by the epidemic, shipping companies have used methods such as suspension of voyages and port jumps to control capacity and adjust freight rates, but to a certain extent they also broke the balance of empty and heavy containers between routes. With the gradual recovery of the economy, the trade demand of various countries has rebounded, and the exports of Europe and the United States have grown strongly. However, under the continuous epidemic situation, the various quarantine and epidemic prevention measures added by the port customs will inevitably slow down the circulation of containers. Coupled with the gathering of festivals such as "Black Friday" and "Christmas", the port operation capacity will not be able to keep up with the number of boxes. , The result is that a large number of containers are blocked in the port, empty containers can not go out, heavy containers can not enter. In some British ports, the volume of container transportation in recent months has even been 30% higher than normal, resulting in too many empty containers throughout the UK, and even the alarming phenomenon of containers being piled "at your doorstep".

A British freight forwarder said, "Even if customers are prepared to pay close to crazy freight rates to ensure that the goods are shipped, we are still busy trying to transport the empty containers because the port is already full. Some empty containers on the dock are already After being placed for more than four weeks, we still don’t know when they will be loaded."

In order to ensure the smooth operation of global logistics, liner companies have adopted some unconventional container deployment strategies, such as shortening the free container usage period to stimulate and speed up the circulation of containers on key routes; key routes and long-distance base ports give priority to container use and priority Vacant containers are deployed to countries and regions such as China, Southeast Asia, etc.; the monitoring of container return is slow. For example, some areas in Africa cannot receive goods normally, resulting in whether the container is returned or not. The liner company will comprehensively evaluate and reasonably release the container; some shipping companies even suspend it Made export reservations to Europe and the United States in order to fill as many empty containers as possible back to Asia. However, due to the empty container regulation of shipping companies, the freight rates on the Asia-Europe routes have also been increasing, and the market seems to be in a vicious circle of chaos.

At the same time, a survey conducted by xChange and FraunhoferCML, a German maritime research consultant, showed that despite the large-scale progress in global port handling technology, the time that containers remain empty in ports is still surprisingly long. This report unexpectedly shows that the global container vacancy phenomenon is very serious. The vacant time of each container in the port is 45 days on average, while the vacant time of containers in empty container shortage areas such as China and the United States is longer, 61 days and 61 days respectively. 66 days.

Obviously, the circulation of empty containers is a problem that the entire industry needs to face squarely, but it has been ignored by the industry for a long time. In the sudden crisis of the epidemic, the "old problems" have further deteriorated and gradually developed into today's thorny problems.

It is understood that CIMC, which accounts for 45% of the global container manufacturing market, said that the company is currently stepping up container building and container orders have been scheduled to the first quarter of next year. However, waiting for the new containers to leave the factory, after all, "far water can't save the immediate emergency", and the situation of "a box is hard to find" is expected to continue for some time. In addition to working overtime and deploying empty containers, what else can shipping companies and ports do? The structural empty container circulation problem may be difficult to obtain an optimal solution in a short period of time, but "it is not too late to make up for it". It is time to put more resources and efforts on solving the empty container problem.

/ By TJ China Freight / Shipping

In addition to suspension and additional surcharges, another 5 container ships jumped to the British port

As shipping companies continue to detain containers in Nordic ports and charge exporters more than US$5,000 per container to ship a container to Asia, there is increasing pressure for regulatory intervention.

British importers are currently facing major challenges. The shipping division of the Ocean Alliance has decided to transfer the other five ships that arrived in Felixstowe in December to Zeebrugge, Belgium.

According to a consultation conducted by the shipping company to its British customers last Friday , the five ships Cosco Shipping Azalea, Ever Goods, Ever Globe, CSCL Jupiter and CSCL Uranus  will no longer call Felixstowe, and will unload the British ships at Belgian ports. Imported products.

In addition, the partners of 2M and THE Alliance are also transferring ships from the congested British port, where the former is loading and unloading British cargo in Bremerhaven.

It is understood that due to the lack of open feeder ships and terminal capacity issues, it is almost impossible for British goods to be transferred before January next year. Some shipping companies are discussing not calling Felixstowe throughout January because they worry that the port will be saturated in a few weeks after Christmas.

However, as the terminals in Antwerp and Rotterdam have also become very congested, the choice of liner companies is becoming increasingly limited. However, a source from a shipping company said: "Our first priority is to reduce imports before shipping our container equipment back to Asia."

British export orders have been suspended by a number of shipping companies, and more and more orders can only be booked at other Nordic ports paying additional fees.

MSC said on Friday that it will significantly increase the FAK fee for a 40-foot container from Antwerp to Shanghai in December by 300% to US$5,000. MSC explained that it is facing very serious operational problems that have seriously affected the reliability and regular supply of inventory.

A source at a rival shipping company said the strategy is to block bookings so that MSC can return its empty containers to Asia more quickly.

He added: "If they can indeed get some reservations at this price, it will be a win-win."

At the same time, the European Shippers Council (ESC) and the European freight forwarders association CLECAT have joined forces to lobby the European Commission to intervene in this crisis.

Denis Choumert, president of ESC, said: "Shipping companies have been taking advantage of the tight capacity to increase revenue far beyond cost, which makes customers unhappy."

"The continuous unreliability of service, coupled with the record profits of the shipping company during the crisis, clearly illustrates a severely disturbed market, and shows that the carrier has substantially increased the spot freight and levied higher than the fixed-term contract price The huge surcharge."

A joint communiqué stated that ocean shipping companies serving Europe benefited from “privileges” that were provided to them by the Union’s Prevention of Immunity Regulations (CBER), which was updated in April.

"Such privileges are now too much because they allow shipping companies to use tools to manipulate the market," adding that the European Commission has not responded to the crisis so far, which is "confusing".

/ By TJ China Freight / Shipping

Freight rates on Asia-Europe routes rose 27% within a week

As analysts have always predicted, the spot freight rates on the Asia-Europe container trade routes have risen sharply. Compared with the booming Pan Pacific routes, the carnival comes later.

Stimulated by the surge in consumer demand, the supply of equipment was tight and the supply of equipment was limited. The freight rate announced by the Shanghai Container Freight Index (SCFI) rose by US$447/TEU to US$2091/TEU, a 27% increase in a week. The freight rate of the Asia-Mediterranean route has also risen sharply, rising by US$421 or 23% this week to US$2219 per TEU.

Today, most trade routes have also released data for a week. The freight rate from Asia to West Africa has increased by US$300 to US$4,459 per TEU; while the freight rate from Asia to the east coast of Latin America has soared by US$402 to 4,805 per TEU. Dollar.

At the same time, the freight rate in the Pacific region was flat this week, but still at a historical high.

According to recent data released by shipping reporting company Sea Intelligence, the capacity of trans-Pacific routes will increase by 27.3% year-on-year in December. However, in Asia and Europe, the deployment plans of these shipping companies show that capacity has only increased by 6.7% year-on-year. In recent months, many ships have diverted to more profitable trans-Pacific waters.

Earlier this week, Eytan Buchman of Freightos, an online container ordering platform, commented in a report to customers: “Because carriers prioritize trans-Pacific containers, some of them have shifted their shipping capacity to Asia from Europe. United States."

"The shortage of equipment and port congestion in the United States and the United Kingdom has made shippers miserable. There are reports that bookings have been rejected due to lack of empty containers, containers have been unloaded at other ports, and shippers have delayed bookings." Buchman added.

In recent months, the record freight environment has prompted many governments to intervene. The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has expanded its investigation of liner activities, and India, China and South Korea have also recommended that routes control their sky-high charges.