China’s exports recovered fast from the COVID-19 pandemic but delivering goods overseas has become difficult due to increasing shipping costs, says an article published in CGTN.
In October, China’s export volume topped 1.6 trillion yuan, jumping 7.6 percent year on year, the seventh consecutive month of positive growth since the coronavirus outbreak.
Increase Index
The fright index cost by Shanghai Shipping Exchange climbed to 2048.27 last Friday, which was over twice April’s figure of 855.34. Containers have gotten costly, which means plenty of headaches for the shipping companies and the firms that depend on them on a daily basis.
Freight rates between Shanghai and the UK rose nearly four times between March and November while rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles more than tripled.
These days, it can cost as much as $5,000, up from $1,300 in March, to put a container on a ship and send it somewhere.
Impacts of boom
This cost increase has affected Wang Xin, a sea freight export manager at Kuehne+Nagel, who helps clients deliver products around the world by sea. His days have become even tougher during the past few months.
Some carriers are now charging even more than that, calling it a “peak season surcharge,” which is usually several hundred more dollars per container. And even at that high price, the containers are short in supply.
The heaviest impact is being felt by local trading firms, such as Shanghai-based textile exporter Orient International Holding Shanghai Textiles Imp & Export .
Reasons of Boom
The problem is that shipping containers usually move back and forth along the same route, but interruptions to international trade caused by COVID-19 now mean that many containers ship off to one port and then get stuck there.
Many containers are being found on the wrong side of the ocean.
The imbalance between the rising demands of exporters and the tight supply of containers is causing a worldwide challenge.
Comments on Boom
Wong Siewloong
“I’m in the sea freight industry for almost 25 years. I’ve not seen such a situation before because there were times in the past where it was isolated to a single trade link.”
“During the European crisis, we saw the freight rate dropped to double-digit. But this time, the big difference is we are seeing the push of demand and supply imbalance across all trade links.”
Wong added that there’s been a migration of orders from Southeast Asia to China as other countries within Asia were still in lockdown.
He Wei
He is a business manager at Orient International, said a potential solution is to shift to land transportation.
“We are thinking of switching from sea to inland truck transportation. This will save us a lot of time. Although the price of inland transportation is double the price of sea freight, it will save time and especially help our factory catch up with their production plan.”
he said this is just a short-term solution as sea freight is irreplaceable. He predicts that this round of rises in freight rates will continue at least until the spring of next year.
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Source: CGTN
