At present, sky-high shipping fees are soaring, constantly refreshing their awareness. The sea logistics market is polarized, on the one hand, the collective carnival of shipping companies, and on the other hand, the complaints of manufacturing and importers and exporters. At the same time, the market is filled with smoke. Countries have launched investigations on sky-high shipping costs, not only pointing to shipping companies, but also pointing to the port side; shipping companies have also begun to "break their arms" and stopping their freight rates under the high international attention and pressure, but the market does not seem to appreciate it...
Just when the plot was deadlocked, a bomb exploded...
For China's upcoming National Day Golden Week holiday, 2M announced a suspension of flights! ——According to many media reports, the shipper was "angry and shocked" " after learning the news.
2M Alliance container shipping company announced that it would cancel four voyages during the National Day Golden Week, which made shippers who are still trying to transport their goods out of Asia very "stunning".
2M is also the first alliance to announce a suspension of flights during China's National Day Golden Week, This puts some shippers in a dilemma, who booked goods on cancelled routes and are still struggling to find capacity for fully loaded export ships from Asia.
2M's partners maersk and MSCh canceled four scheduled Asia-Nordic Circles in Weeks 39 and 40, thereby reducing capacity by about 70,000 teu from the route.
MSC response was based on adjustment of the correct shift rate.
According to the recommendations of MSC, 2M will cancel the Griffin/AE55 loop and Lion/AE6 service in the last week of September, and the Albatross/AE5 and Lion/AE6 loops will be cancelled in the next week.
MSC said that the reason for cancellation of the route is "to improve the reliability of the liner shift rate."
MSC stated that it had “decided to adjust the voyages of MSC Istanbul in Week 42 and MSC Bettina in Week 43 to match the corresponding actual departure week for ships and route services”.
However, MSC said in its statement that shippers can "continue booking as usual as we are scheduled for contingency plans with alternative services".
Shippers "Shock + Angry"
◇A shipper said indignantly, "The sky-high freight has already hit our limits. Now not only are there fewer routes, the freight price during this period will be further pushed up."
◇Another British freight forwarder who booked goods during the cancelled voyage in September also said that he was "shocked" by the action.
"We were suddenly notified this morning and over the past few hours we have been working hard to understand what happens to our confirmed booking now."
He said there seemed to be "some confusion" around the alternatives and is still waiting for further information.
"This seems to surprise everyone, including the partners," he added.
◇But one shipping company said it is normal for carriers to shut down around the Golden Week holiday, because demand has traditionally eased after the peak of the main peak season. But, “the backlog of bookings this year is likely to fill our ships by October.”
But some commentators pointed out that blank routes "it is hard not to remind people of collusion to raise prices, cancellation of routes, or more related to ensuring spot freight rates are maintained at high levels, rather than achieving accurate shift rates."
Maersk has not made any statement about this
So far, Maersk has not officially confirmed these blank route plans, although Maersk recently announced some changes to the voyages on trade routes to reflect the decline in voyages due to delays in port congestion.
Maersk said: "Recently unprecedented severe port congestion worldwide has led to delays in multiple route services on the Asia-Nordic network."
"This situation is driven by rapid growth in demand and measures to fight the covid-19 pandemic across ports and throughout the supply chain, which currently lead to a gap in flight schedules and result in multiple Asian flights being more than seven days apart." A shipping company added.
In fact, considering the severe chain reaction of port congestion, "skiing" on many trade routes has generally replaced "air freight", and demand remains high, and many carrier operations departments believe that the ship schedule and shift rate is almost "impossible".
summary
The current shipping market freight trend is indeed difficult to see the direction clearly. There are complex gaming forces in all directions. Many countries have launched high freight surveys, and some shipping giants have also announced that freight rates have "frozen" before February next year, which seems to have given the market a hope of a downward trend in freight rates; however, the cancellation of routes by 2M members this time has indeed further aggravated the supply and demand tension, and created momentum for sea freight rates to continue to rise... Therefore, the subsequent sea freight trend is more uncertain.
Marine Service Network CNSS
