The freight rate continues to soar, and CCTV reports again: Crazy boxes have increased in price by nearly 10 times! "One box is hard to find" at home and the backlog abroad is serious

The congestion from Yantian Port to major ports in southern China, and then to the increasing congestion of major receiving terminals such as Auckland and Hamburg, has made the already fragile supply chain even worse, causing further surge in container freight rates from Asia.

According to the latest data of the Baltic Freight Index (FBX), the spot freight rate from Asia to Northern Europe rose by 11% last week, reaching US$10,492/FEU, a staggering 533% higher than the same period last year.

The FBX freight index from Asia to the US West increased by 3% to US$5,560/FEU; to the US East, it rose 2% to US$7521/FEU. Compared with 12 months ago, the spot freight rates of this route to the west and east of the U.S. have increased by 154% and 161% respectively

The Shanghai Container Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange last Friday showed that it rose by 117 points to close at 3,613 points. It rose again by 3.3%, setting a new record, and was up 157% year-on-year.

On June 4, the freight rate from Shanghai to the basic European port market was 5,887 USD/TEU; the freight rate from Shanghai to the Mediterranean basic port market was 5,952 USD/TEU.

In addition, the weekly World Container Index released by Drewry last Friday showed that shippers need to cope with higher price surges. The global average transportation price per FEU is US$6473.78, which is more than 3.5 times the price in the same period last year. Industry analysts said that the upper limit of container freight has yet to be determined.

Nowadays, the global shipping industry can be described as the "ice and fire". The epidemic situation in many overseas countries is severe, the labor shortage is insufficient, and the port containers are piled up like a mountain; the major ports in Asia are often plagued by "lack of containers" and "less containers", and the price of containers is soaring. Shipping routes have risen nearly 10 times, and they are still "hard to find in a box."

For a period of time, in many domestic ports, there are always waiting crowds around the container registry.

Since the third quarter of last year, the shortage of containers has spread in major ports. According to many media reports, some scalpers took the opportunity to sit on the ground and raise prices, and some routes may not be able to grab a container if they increase the price by US$3,000. There are also a large number of manufacturers who are bothered by the lack of boxes. The warehouse of a handicraft manufacturer in Ningbo is full of products that have not had time to be shipped away, totaling 1,000 cubic meters.

Lin Liping, Deputy General Manager of an Import and Export Co., Ltd. in Ningbo: This is our guest of TV shopping in Germany. All the 20 containers will leave from the beginning of November 2020. Until now, there is no clear shipping schedule.

The anxiety of enterprises has continuously pushed up the selling price of containers. In the first half of 2020, the price of a 20-foot small box was US$1,600, and now it has risen to a maximum of US$3,600. The price of the popular 40-foot box has risen to US$5,950. The price has all doubled and hit a record high.

Unlike the domestic “difficult to find one container”, the Auckland Port of New Zealand has a serious backlog of empty containers. Since the second half of 2020, in order to store those empty containers that cannot be shipped, they have found 5 new storage yards. There are nearly 6000 empty containers stranded in Auckland.

Mark Scott, Chief Operating Officer, COSCO Shipping Group (New Zealand) Co., Ltd.: The container backlog of all shipping companies in New Zealand is very serious, which is twice the normal situation.

The data shows that between 10,000 and 15,000 containers are stranded in California, USA. In the Port of Felixstowe, Britain, containers have spread from the port to the surrounding suburbs. The number of empty containers in Australia's ports exceeds 50,000. At present, the stock of empty containers in some important international ports is three times the normal level.

Roberto Gianneta, Chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association: We found that there are now empty containers stranded in North America and Europe. In addition, empty containers in Australia and more places are also waiting to be shipped back.

Mai Boliang, Chairman of CIMC Group: There are more than 40 million containers in operation around the world. We produced 400,000 containers a month, and 5 million containers were produced in that year. If the boxes cannot be returned, you still cannot solve the fundamental problem.