Xinhua Finance, Beijing, September 18 (Reporters Ding Yawen, Li Ting, Wu Huijun) As sea freight prices continue to break through historical highs, the liner giant announced that it would suspend the increase in spot freight prices and caused market turmoil.
Before the peak demand season for Europe and the United States, liner companies' "freeze prices" are conducive to calming shipping prices. However, the liner company's "good behavior" has also aroused market doubts. Is this move a "stoppable measure" under strong supervision, or is it a bargaining chip that aims to raise the shipping price through forward contract prices? How to resolve the conflict between liner company and shipper? When will sea freight prices reach a turning point? The reporter interviewed many industry insiders from all links of the industrial chain and learned about the real situation of the current maritime market.
Where does the market doubt come from?
So far, four liner giants have announced the suspension of raising spot freight rates. After
Zida Flying Shipping announced the suspension of spot freight rates, the three giant companies, Maersk , Hapag-Lloyd , and Ocean Network, have also expressed their promise that they will not raise spot freight rates in the future.
Among them, Dafei Shipping stated in its statement that it would stop all spot freight price increases. The measure will take effect immediately from September 9, 2021 until February 1, 2022. Hapag-Lloyd said it would not further increase spot freight rates and hoped that the market would slowly begin to calm down.
For liner companies' above measures, the market generally believes that the market is a "stoppable measure" due to regulatory pressure.
At the China-US and Europe international maritime regulatory meeting held a few days ago, Daniel Maffei, chairman of the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), said that the abnormally high operation of maritime prices and container prices has attracted widespread attention from global regulators, legislators and the public.
, director of Tianjin Shipping Business Technology Service Center, Yang Jing pointed out that in the past, the maritime regulatory departments of various countries had some regulatory actions against the rise in freight rates, but did not form a joint force. This international maritime regulatory conference sent a signal that liner companies are becoming more stringent.
"Lineship companies announced that they would not raise prices was obviously due to regulatory pressure. But the only thing they announced was spot freight rates, and the fact is that spot freight rates could not be set at all. In addition, the liner companies' capacity by next year is basically full, which may be just a 'stance'." said the person in charge of a shipping company in Zhejiang.
"In addition to freight, the shipping price also includes various surcharges. The liner company only said that it will not raise the spot freight, but it can increase the price in disguise by raising the surcharge. In addition, after February next year, it is often when the liner company negotiates forward contract prices with the cargo owner. There is uncertainty as to whether the liner company will further increase the freight through forward freight contracts and other means." said the person in charge of a foreign trade company.
How to resolve the conflict between shipping giants and shippers?
As sea freight prices continue to soar, the conflict between shippers and liner companies has also been exposed to the spotlight. Many overseas retailers call themselves "victims of shipping merchants' greed" on the Internet. For example, US import retailer MCS Industries recently filed charges with the FMC, saying that shipping companies colluded to raise market prices.
The continuous surge in shipping prices has become a constraint on my country's exports and threatens the production and operation of some foreign trade enterprises. The head of a foreign trade export company in Fujian told reporters that the sales prices and purchase prices of overseas customer companies have been inverted and are in a loss-making state.
The person in charge of a stairware company in Tianjin said that the company uses FOB to ship goods, and the purchaser is generally a large foreign supermarket, and has strong logistics bargaining power. Despite this, customers are complaining about the increase in logistics costs, such as the shipping costs to the UK have increased by nearly 5 times, and the shipping costs allocated to each ladder are almost covering the price of the product itself.
In contrast to the operating conditions of foreign trade enterprises, the profits of liner giants soared in the first half of the year.
financial report shows that the liner giant's profits maintained a rapid growth trend in the first half of 2021.Among them, the net profit after tax in Evergreen Shipping increased by nearly 28 times year-on-year in the first half of the year; the net profit after tax in China COSCO Shipping increased by more than 31 times year-on-year; the net profit after tax in the second quarter reached US$3.48 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2459%; the profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of in the second quarter reached US$5.1 billion, an increase of 200% over the same period last year.
More than html insiders said that due to the imbalance in supply and demand of transportation capacity, the demand side is relatively weak. In addition to the normal freight quotation, cargo owners generally can only swallow their anger for some intermediate links raised by shipowners, such as congestion fees. When will the freight turning point of
come?
freight rate is seriously affected by foreign trade, whether sea freight prices have reached a turning point is another focus of market attention.
In this regard, Yang Jing pointed out that some liner companies announced the freezing of spot freight rates, which is expected to alleviate the trend of sharp rise in freight rates to a certain extent. However, factors that affect the rise in freight rates, such as port congestion and insufficient transportation capacity, still exist. And for shippers, shipping costs not only include freight prices, but also various surcharges, such as fuel surcharges, peak season surcharges, etc. Therefore, freezing spot freight rates may not necessarily bring about the turning point of shipping prices.
Survey found that the global epidemic rebounded, a large number of dock workers in overseas ports were isolated due to positive tests in the new coronavirus or close contact, the port labor force was greatly reduced, and the decline in the operating efficiency of the terminal caused a large number of containers to be trapped in the port and could not return on time, which is an important reason for the continuous rise in international freight rates.
In addition, the outbreak of the epidemic in India has further exacerbated the tension in transportation capacity. India is one of the most important crew members in the world, with 15% of seafarers worldwide coming from India. The epidemic situation in India remains severe, prompting some ports to impose restrictions on crew members and ships coming to India.
Industry insiders pointed out that although there will be a trend of stricter supervision of shipping companies in the future, supervision cannot directly interfere with market prices. Many industry insiders predict that in the long run, whether sea freight prices can reach a turning point depends on the control of the epidemic.
(participated in the survey: Hu Jiefei, Wang Yangang)
Statement: Xinhua Finance is a national financial information platform for Xinhua News Agency. Under no circumstances shall the information published on this platform constitute investment advice.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-