Crazy Container!

China's domestic container prices nearly 10 times: port "for containers if thirsty", foreign trade enterprises also "a container is difficult to find"!

For some time, many ports in China, container registration around the queue is always full of people waiting.

Since the third quarter of last year, the shortage of containers in major ports spread, according to a number of media reports, some scalpers take the opportunity to sit on the ground, some airlines raise the price of 3000 dollars may not grab a container. Due to the lack of containers and vexed by a large number of production enterprises. Many manufactures have warehouses full of products that have not yet been shipped.

The anxiety of the enterprise, constantly pushing up the sales price of the container. In the first half of 2020, the price of a small 20-foot case was $1,600, and now it's as high as $3,600, while the popular 40-foot case has doubled to $5,950, hitting an all-time high. What is more frightening is that it has maintained an increasing trend.

With the domestic "difficult to find a container" different, many countries outside China's ports, but present a container backlog problem. For example, in Auckland Port of New Zealand, since the second half of 2020, in order to store those empty containers that cannot be transported, they have found five new storage yards. At most, nearly 6,000 empty containers are stuck in Auckland.

Data shows that there are 10,000 to 15,000 containers stranded in California. At Port Felixstowe in the UK, containers have spread from the port to the surrounding suburbs. Australian ports hold more than 50,000 empty containers. At present, some important ports in the international empty container stock is three times the normal level.

This wave of rising prices in the shipping industry, due to a number of factors, such as the severity of the epidemic overseas, the Suez Canal blocked, the shipping industry pressure doubled.  It's been two months since the Suez Canal blockage, but the impact is still being felt.  Add to this the cumulative effects of COVID-19, and the resulting disruptions in shipping times and congestion at ports are happening all over the world.  There are sometimes more than 10 container ships waiting to load and unload cargo in the outer anchorage of Auckland port in New Zealand, with an average delay of 8 to 10 days.

The situation on board was no better, with COVID-19 a constant threat to the health of sailors.  Maersk is the world's largest container shipping company, with 30% of its crew coming from India.  The second outbreak of COVID-19 in India has had a huge impact on the company's business.  India is one of the world's most important suppliers of seafarers, with 15% of the world's seafarers coming from India.  The recent catastrophic surge in the outbreak in India has prompted some ports to impose restrictions on crew and ships coming to the country.  This is without a doubt

With the recovery of the global economy, the trade demand of all countries has increased greatly. Thanks to the effective control of the epidemic in China, the manufacturing industry in China bears an important responsibility in the global industrial chain. The total value of China's imports and exports of tradable goods in the first four months of this year increased by 28.5 percent over the same period in 2020 and 21.8 percent over the same period in 2019, the data showed.

At present, 90 per cent of world trade is carried out by sea. Poor shipping would have a damaging impact on the global economic recovery.  To this end, China has taken a number of measures to unclog the arteries of global trade.  China is the world's main container producer, making more than 96 percent of the world's dry cargo containers and 100 percent of the world's refrigerated containers. In order to cope with the "one box is hard to find" dilemma, Chinese container manufacturers are working overtime to produce containers.

The China-Europe freight train, air cargo, container rail and waterway combined transport and other measures have opened a "new way" for China's foreign trade. But in the face of huge demand for shipping, these measures are still a drop in the bucket. We can only wait for the early spread of vaccines to bring the epidemic under full control.