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Hits:Updated:2022-12-09 12:12:34【Print】
In the past two years, the maritime market has undergone a transformation from "one container is difficult to obtain", "one cabin is difficult to obtain" to "empty container pile port".
In 2020, due to the growth of overseas demand, logistics problems and other factors, international shipping prices soared, but since the beginning of this year, international shipping prices have fluctuated back from the high, and gradually entered a reasonable range.
Shipping container "waiting for delivery"
This year, with Christmas, the world's biggest spending season, just around the corner, the shipping industry is facing a shortage of goods.
Due to changes in the external environment, since 2022, the export volume of anti-epidemic materials represented by textiles, medicines and medical devices and "home economy" products represented by furniture, home appliances, electronic products and entertainment facilities have declined. Since July, the growth trend of container export value and export container volume has even reversed.
From the perspective of European and American inventory, the world's major buyers, retailers and manufacturers have experienced a process from short supply, global grab for goods, goods on the way to high inventory in just over 2 years.
"High inventories and hard to sell" have become a common problem for retailers in the US and Europe, a change that is dampening the import incentive for buyers, retailers and manufacturers.
In addition, since 2022, the previously shrunked production capacity in the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other countries has recovered rapidly. Coupled with the "decoupling" of some industries, the proportion of China's export commodities has begun to decline, which also indirectly affects the growth of China's container export trade demand.
Industry insiders point out that after entering the second half of this year, orders appear to be thin, and this year's Christmas orders are down nearly 30 percent compared to previous years.
A lot of empty containers are piling up at Chinese ports
Recently, the official website of the China Port Association released a port production operation monitoring and analysis report said that in November foreign trade heavy container (usually refers to loaded boxes) throughput down 9.7%, foreign trade empty container year-on-year increase 23.73%.
In terms of containers, in November, container throughput at eight coastal container hubs increased by 5.3 per cent year-on-year. Among them, foreign trade increased by 3.3% year on year, the increment of foreign trade mainly comes from empty container reflux.
"Business is not good, 20 percent less [than last year]," said the head of a logistics company that provides container transportation and storage services in Shenzhen. The company's container yards are also stretched, with some empty boxes "sitting there for ages."
A large number of containers are piled up in the port area near the Yantian dock gate. As an international container trunk transport hub in South China, Yantian Port is one of the container terminals with the largest single throughput in the world. It mainly serves the export routes to Europe and America, with nearly 100 liner routes reaching Europe and the United States every week.
In the past, the tow truck driver returned the heavy container at the dock and then took the empty container to the next factory to pick up the goods, said the person in charge. Now, after the trailer returns the heavy container, most of them no longer pick up the container, because there is no 'next order' of goods to pull.
A truck driver involved in container transport in Yantian port said that he recently saw many "empty shelves" parked on the roadside near the container terminal of Yantian Port. "Some of them have flat tires and no orders, and some of the drivers have gone home".
He added that many parking lots are now full and empty, and docks are being cleaned up for illegal parking, making the situation more difficult for drivers.
A few days ago, Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. said on its official wechat account that its storage capacity has reached a new high since March 2020, and will soon break through the all-time high since the port opened 29 years ago. However, in order to cope with the return of empty containers and prepare for cargo warming, it is making plans to optimize the storage capacity.
Industrial chain enterprises need to actively respond
Affected by the epidemic and sluggish market demand, freight rates on many routes have weakened again and are still unable to recover for the time being. In the context of falling shipping prices, relevant enterprises in the industrial chain also need to actively respond.
"For shipping companies, the previously hot shipping market may have prompted them to buy new ships at high prices to increase capacity, while the ongoing decline in shipping prices may add pressure to their operations. "In response, shipping companies need to improve their integrated service capabilities as soon as possible, seize new opportunities under trade frameworks such as RCEP, and be more cautious about ship investments."
Citic Securities chief economist clearly said, for freight forwarders, with the fall of freight rates, it may face the situation of freight upside down, that is, the long-term price is higher than the spot price.
In this regard, freight forwarding companies need to strengthen cost management, actively try to renegotiate the long association price with shipping companies, improve customer service ability, and win with service.
In addition, on the one hand, foreign trade enterprises should actively understand and make full use of policies to stabilize foreign trade, such as RCEP, cross-border e-commerce mode and other channels to expand overseas markets and win new orders.
On the other hand, according to its own situation and overseas demand changes, reasonable control of raw material costs and inventory levels, improve the ability of enterprises to resist the risk of falling external demand than expected.
There are also suggestions from the industry that foreign trade enterprises can actively explore the markets of countries along the "Belt and Road" in the future, especially the markets of ASEAN countries, when the demand of traditional European and American markets is decreasing.
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