Since the beginning of this year, my country's foreign trade imports and exports have maintained growth, but the continuous high fever of sea freight prices have brought considerable pressure to foreign trade companies. It just fell from its historical highs not long ago, but with the recovery of production and consumption in Southeast Asia, it has now heated up again.
Demand increases. Southeast Asia's shipping freight rates soar
Freight forwarder Chen Yang in Ningbo, Zhejiang is booking sea freight spaces in Southeast Asia. The sudden surge in freight rates for Southeast Asia routes have caused him a headache. According to his understanding, the cabins in Southeast Asia are now very popular and very tight, and the freight rates have increased relatively a lot. Recently, the high-boxes have been traveling for $3,000 to $3,400, Thailand is about $3,400.
General Manager of a International Logistics Co., Ltd. in Ningbo, Zhejiang Chen Yang : Mainly Vietnam and Thailand, including Indonesia and Malaysia . The freight rates of these ports have generally risen to more than US$3,000. Before the epidemic, the freight rate may only be at the level of US$200 to US$300. During the epidemic, it reached more than US$1,000, and the highest price of more than US$2,000 around the Spring Festival in 2021. The current price should be the highest since the epidemic.
Ningbo Shipping Exchange data shows that in November, the Thai-Vietnam route freight index rose 72.2% month-on-month. In the past week, the Singapore-Malaysian route freight index rose 9.8% month-on-month. Industry experts said that the resumption of work and production in Southeast Asia has increased demand and freight rates have risen beyond expectations. While freight rates in Southeast Asia soared, freight rates in China and the United States, which had just subsided, have rebounded slightly recently. On December 3, the Shanghai export container freight index, which reflects spot freight rates, was 4727.06, up 125.09 from a week ago.
Shenwan Hongyuan Transportation Chief Analyst Yan Hai : The uncertainty of the Omickron variant virus now faces, the ultimate impact, whether it is the final assessment of the potential lockdown caused by the new epidemic, whether it is the final assessment of overseas docks or the new epidemic.
Box shortage alleviated "One box is difficult to find" becomes "One cabin is difficult to find"
Previously, container turnover, slow reflux, and "one box is difficult to find" were one of the reasons for the high sea freight rates. What changes have occurred in the current situation and what new problems have emerged?
is at the container terminal of Yantian Port, Shenzhen. Almost every berth has an container ship berthing, and the entire terminal is basically operating at full capacity. The reporter found that in the Yantian Port logistics mini program, there was an occasional reminder of a shortage of empty boxes in October, and it was no longer in November.
Section Chief of the Ship Management Section of Dapeng Customs, Shenzhen Customs, Song Daning : In October, a total of 450,000 TEUs were imported into the country. We have also taken a series of monitoring measures to regulate the empty box, and we have taken a comprehensive control of the demand for empty boxes.
National Bureau of Statistics data shows that in the first eight months of this year, my country's metal container production increased by 1.7 times year-on-year. The reporter learned in the market that although the problem of missing boxes in is temporarily solved, the problem of missing boxes is still serious. Not only has "registering" and "packing boxes" become the norm, but even the spaces in the containers have been around and corners.
Zhejiang Yiwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. General Manager of Yang Deshi : Direct services include Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines , three countries. The main products are daily necessities and handicrafts. We basically have zero-package and package delivery services.
Deputy General Manager of a International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. in Guangzhou, Guangdong Xie Xiaolan : Because the car has a space as a whole, things can be placed in the car.After loading the vehicle into a container, it still has some remaining space. Now companies are wondering whether they can put other small cargo goods into one piece and the car, and export them into a box to save shipping costs.
chartered a ship to go overseas to solve the urgent needs of the supply chain
The shipping market continues to have a high fever. In order to ship, foreign trade companies rack their brains. Small cargo owners latch on and pack up boxes, while large cargo owners and agents have come up with the solution to "charting ships" to solve the supply chain problems.
When the reporter arrived at the Daxie Xinye Wharf of Ningbo, the large-scale crane was modifying the deck of the large cargo ship "Iceland", and at the same time, a batch of cargo was tied to the bottom of the bilge first. This is a multi-purpose ship. Compared with traditional container ships, the hull needs to be modified in certain ways before loading.
Xu Wei, a manager of a shipping company in Ningbo, Zhejiang, told reporters that in order to catch up with the festival markets of Western countries, they chose to "chart ship" to go to sea . The ship carries 1,400 standard boxes and is expected to go directly to the UK before New Year's Day. Although has higher costs than the traditional shipping model, in the current environment of blockage of the "logistics supply chain", foreign trade companies need efficiency and cabin space to alleviate the return of funds and warehousing pressure caused by cargo backlog.
"Iceland" is not an isolated case. The reporter learned from customs in many places that many cargo owners and freight forwarders have chosen such a "ship charter" method to smooth the maritime "supply chain" to solve the urgent needs of logistics.
Deputy Director of Dazangwan Customs, Shenzhen Customs, Jiang Haidong : Since the beginning of this year, the chartered ships at the Dazangwan Port have shown rapid growth, with a total of 73 voyages, involving 58,000 containers. Export companies have reported that chartered ships to sea have a very obvious effect on solving the insufficient international transportation capacity.
Source: CCTV Finance
