The shipping fee remains high, and my country's foreign trade enterprises are deeply affected. On September 14, Ren Hongbin, Vice Minister of Commerce, said at the press conference of the State Information Office that the Ministry of Commerce will promptly introduce highly targeted policy support measures to increase assistance to small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises. Actively support the development of new foreign trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, market procurement, and offshore trade . Good news has also been heard in the freight price of
, and the sea freight prices that have been soaring along the way may be controlled. Recently, shipping giants such as Dafei Shipping have announced that they will freeze freight rates. Experts believe that "freeze price" will play a stabilizer role in the foreign trade market in the long run. However, some foreign trade practitioners told reporters that "it is difficult to find a cabin" is a bigger problem, and it is still difficult to say whether "freeze price" can really make foreign trade companies profit.
freight rates soared 6 times
Since last year, sea freight rates have risen sharply. As of September 10, the Shanghai export container freight index continued to rise to 4568.16 points, nearly six times the low in April last year.
Beijing Business Daily reporter checked the international logistics online platform "Yunqu" and saw that the current cabin shipped from Shanghai to Fox, France on September 30 was sold for US$14,000, and there was only one left in stock.
"Container prices have been rising recently. For example, the large boxes to the east coast of the United States have reached around $21,000, while those to the west coast of the United States are generally $15,000. For example, before the price increase last year, most of them were around $3,000. And the price is so high, it is still impossible to order, so you can only order 2-3 weeks in advance." Liu Yang (pseudonym), a foreign trade industry practitioner, told Beijing Business Daily reporter.
CITIC Construction Investment Recent research reports pointed out that the super peak season for collective transportation may be extended to record levels. Under the influence of the epidemic and various events, there is still no sign that the supply and demand relationship has improved. The control of affiliated ships at various ports under the epidemic has exacerbated delays during shifts and supply and demand contradictions. For example, the number of container ships berthed in Los Angeles anchorage has once again hit a record high.
Clarkson Research Services Co., Ltd. data on September 13 showed that the shipping industry has recorded its strongest daily earnings since 2008.
's crazy freight rates have also attracted the attention of regulators. Recently, relevant departments of China, the United States, and the European Union held a global shipping regulatory summit. The participants analyzed the current difficulties faced by the overseas operation industry and the reasons for the impact of the overseas operation industry. What possible measures can be taken in the future to bring the overseas operation industry back on track. After the
summit, many shipping giants announced the "freeze of freight rates". Dafei Shipping announced that it will suspend the increase in spot freight worldwide in the next five months. Maersk , Hapag-Lloyd , etc. also promise that the market spot freight will not further increase in the next few months, and the current freight rate level will be temporarily maintained.
"As sea transportation giants, they are more concerned about long-term development. If prices continue to rise out of control, they may lose customer resources, which is not conducive to the long-term development of these large shipping companies. And now the prices are relatively high, and freezing prices are also very beneficial for enterprises at this time." Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, told Beijing Business Daily reporters.
Due to the insufficient supply of port capacity, new small carriers have been continuously joining the Pacific market recently. Bai Ming believes that the move of the shipping giant not only stabilizes customer resources, but also ensures short-term returns. At the same time, it is conducive to maintaining the stability of the industry's competitive group and avoiding more competitors participating in the competition in the overseas operation industry.
high price has become inevitable
Can the "freeze price" really work? In Liu Yang's view, "it's hard to find a cabin" is a bigger problem at present.
"For example, Dafei, the quotation it gives is actually far lower than the market price. If you go to Europe, the quotation for the small cabinet is less than US$8,000, but you can't order it. I told you that it is impossible to determine whether the cabin is placed or not, and the price will rise again when it can be determined. Even if the price is really frozen, there is still no way to book the freezing cabin, which is far away. What's more, there are many freight forwarding fees in it." Liu Yang revealed to reporters.
For foreign trade companies, the problem of "freight costs are higher than the value of goods" is gradually becoming prominent.Ren Hongbin said at the press conference that recent surveys show that the operating pressure of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises is increasing. The high shipping fee is a factor, which leads to the situation of "not daring to take orders if they have orders and not daring to do orders if they have orders."
"Foreign trade is basically paid for shipping for foreign customers, but now many shipping costs are already higher than the value of the goods. The prices of foreign sales have risen and the cabin cannot be booked. Over time, foreign trade companies cannot be shipped, and foreign trade processing plants cannot be shipped, resulting in a backlog of goods and warehouses cannot be placed, so production can only be reduced." Liu Yang explained.
IPG China's chief economist Bai Wenxi believes that the continuous and infinite rise in shipping prices will inevitably cause blows and damage to shipping itself and the industrial chain involved. Excessive increase may trigger the reconstruction and iteration of the world's industrial structure, industrial chain and value chain, thereby causing irreversible damage to the shipping industry.
Bai Ming believes that freezing prices does help reduce the uncertainty of my country's foreign trade enterprises, but increases the certainty of high prices. "Set this price at a high level, not what we most hope to fall back to a reasonable level. But at least it is a stable high level. So for foreign trade companies, we must also enhance the competitiveness of our products and overcome such pressure of price increase."
alternative business develops rapidly
In fact, in addition to hoping that sea freight prices will stabilize, governments, localities and foreign trade companies themselves are also working hard to break the situation.
Ren Hongbin said at the press conference that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will closely track and judge changes in the international market situation, pay close attention to the development trends of market entities, make policy reserves, enhance foreign trade's ability to resist risks, and maintain stable cross-cycle foreign trade.
At the same time, we will introduce highly targeted policy support measures in a timely manner, increase support for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises, and actively support the development of new foreign trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, market procurement, and offshore trade.
data shows that in 2020, the scale of cross-border e-commerce import and export reached 1.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%; the number of overseas warehouses was 1,800, with an area of 12 million square meters, an increase of 80% and 50% respectively.
After sea transportation gradually lost its original halo of low-price, China-Europe freight trains developed rapidly this year. According to Manzhouli Customs statistics, in August this year, the indicators of China-Europe freight trains entering and leaving the country through the Manzhouli Railway Port hit a new high this year. The first "rail express connection" China-Europe freight train in the country also recently departed from Alashan Pass, Xinjiang.
development of " sea-rail transport " is another channel. For example, Changxing Baoti Logistics, located in , Huzhou, Zhejiang, , is the main business of sea-rail intermodal transport agent. Lin Yang, a company's business salesman, told Beijing Business Daily reporter: "For example, from Huzhou to Ningbo Beilun Port, you can directly enter the port area through sea-rail intermodal transport. There is no need to pay attention to the opening time, and you can board the ship more priority."
At the same time, Zhejiang Province has also built an international container "one-click" scenario application. "When the enterprise fills in the 'order + list', the system will report the warehouse demand for the next few months, so that the original fragmented warehouse demand of the enterprise can be integrated. After that, these data will be fed back to major marine companies through Provincial Harbor Group , and cooperate with corresponding incentive policies, which will help guide more container gathering." Hu Zhenfang, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, previously introduced to reporters.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Tao Feng Wang Chenting
