Shipping prices soared several times: foreign trade companies complain, middlemen make money

　　Recently, the entry "I can't grab a container after a 10 times increase in ocean freight" has been popular online searches. Many practitioners in the foreign trade and freight industries have counted on the soaring cost and the helplessness of "a box is hard to find".

　　 In the context of the continuous impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, a large number of global manufacturing orders have returned to China, but the situation in the container shipping market has continued to be tense. The imbalance between supply and demand of global transportation capacity, shortage of containers, and port congestion have not yet been alleviated. The rise in container prices has also further increased the cost of shipping.

　　A freight forwarder told the reporter of China Business News that before the seaborne price soared, customers would also export low-priced daily necessities such as tissues and cotton swab boxes. After the seaborne price soared, some goods may not be as good as the freight price.

　　 The abnormally high operation of shipping prices and container prices has also attracted the attention of regulatory agencies. Recently, many shipping giants around the world have expressed that they will "freeze freight rates." However, in the eyes of freight forwarders, this move seems to have harmed the interests of shipping giants, but it actually benefits them in the long term and provides a long-term basis for bargaining in long-term agreements. Bargaining chips.

　　 Interlocking influence

　　 How much has the ocean freight rate increased? The "World Container Index" evaluated by Drewry, an international shipping consulting agency, shows that the price of a 40-foot container at the beginning of January 2020 was close to US$2,000, and by September 9 this year, the price had exceeded US$10,000. , An increase of nearly 5 times.

　　 Such a price increase caused Shanghai freight forwarder Ms. Bai (a pseudonym) to call "Heartbeat every day." She told reporters, "Recently, many customers are struggling to go to Matson (hereinafter referred to as "Mason Clippers"), because the freight has increased by 2 to 3 times compared with last September. Before the Mason Clippers did not increase prices, I had a dozen of them. Customers, 10 to 20 votes are traded a week, and now 2 to 3 votes are traded a week."

　　 It is understood that Mason Clippers is a shipping company engaged in international shipping and has a main route from Shanghai to the Port of Long Beach on the west coast of the United States. The average duration of this route is 10 to 11 days, which is the fastest in the shipping route from China to the west coast of the United States.

Among the many freight forwarders interviewed by the reporter, the ordinary shipping prices of the Mason Clippers and other shipping companies were divided into two obvious levels. The main reason was that the Mason Clippers docked at Long Beach Port alone, and the unloading was faster and the shipping schedule was stable. Timeliness can be guaranteed. Ordinary ships are parked in public ports, and dozens of shipping companies line up to wait for unloading, which can easily cause port blockage and delay delivery.

　　 In addition to the difference in freight rates caused by timeliness, Ding Qiang, deputy general manager of Shenzhen Anxinjie Logistics Co., Ltd., also analyzed several reasons for the recent increase in ocean freight rates to reporters. "Foreign factories have been unable to resume work and production, and domestic export trade continues to explode. This has caused a large number of sea containers to be loaded with Chinese goods to be shipped to the world. However, when the cargo ship returned, there were no suitable containers for foreign products to be imported into China in the short term. As a result, a large number of containers are stranded in foreign ports, and the volume of import and export containers is seriously unbalanced."

　　 "One container is hard to find" is not only because of the serious imbalance in the import and export volume of containers, but also the production capacity of new containers is difficult to expand in the short term. According to Ding Qiang, the container factory's new container orders are scheduled for after 2022, which has also caused the current transaction prices of the new and old container markets to continue to rise.

　　 Another Guangzhou freight forwarder further analyzed that the lack of suitable containers for products imported into China means that the cargo ship may not be full or even return to China with empty containers. This way, the shipping company’s profits will be reduced and the freight rate will naturally increase.

　　 In addition, the increase in ocean freight has also caused some foreign trade merchants to complain. The reporter noticed that under the hot search topic of "the sea freight has soared by 10 times and the container can not be grabbed", some netizens said that the company receives about 3 to 4 containers of goods per month, but the soaring sea freight has caused the product price to rise. Fold, the competitiveness declines. After that, if the company chooses to drag some goods out of the way, domestic factories will have a backlog of several containers of goods, and there is no place to store them, which is also a headache.

　　 Ms. Bai also told reporters that before the increase in shipping prices, some customers would use Mason Express to ship toilet paper, cotton swab boxes, paper cups and other daily necessities, but now these products can only be shipped in LCL, and the goods may not be as expensive as the freight.

　　 Giant freezes freight rates

　　 Regarding the abnormally high shipping prices and container prices, the regulatory authorities have also taken action. On September 8, local time, the official website of the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) revealed that maritime regulatory agencies from China, the United States and the European Union held a global shipping regulatory summit to discuss a number of issues of concern.

　　 After the above-mentioned meeting, CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container carrier, announced that it would freeze the freight rates of futures containers until February 1, 2022, and said that it puts the company’s long-term relationship with customers first.

　　 After CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, one of the nine largest shipping companies in the world, also announced that it would stop increasing freight rates. Hapag-Lloyd believes that the spot freight has already peaked, so they will not further increase the freight. But the company did not specify when to stop the price increase, only that this measure will take effect temporarily.

In addition, Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, and ONE Ocean Network Shipping, ranked sixth, have also expressed their opinions recently, promising not to further increase the market spot freight rates in the next few months, and keep them temporarily. The current level of freight rates.

　　 Can shipping giants freeze freight rates really "reverse" ocean freight rates? Ms. Bai is not optimistic about this. She told reporters that when the shipping company released the space for sale, it was sold to the freight forwarding company after two raises in the middle. Even if the shipping company did not increase the price of the space released by the shipping company, the space purchased by the freight forwarding company may be higher than the original price.

Ms. Bai gave an example to the reporter: "The shipping company gives the company's salesman the shipping company, and the salesman takes a rebate in the middle and sells it at a higher price. Not to mention that the middle "scalpers" have also made a profit this year because of the number of freight forwarding companies. There are too many, it is impossible for every freight forwarding company to meet the salesman of the shipping company, and the "scalper" can buy the space from the salesman, and then resell it to the freight forwarding company with a higher price, so that the price will be raised twice."

On the other hand, Ding Qiang believes that shipping companies’ high-level freezing of freight rates until the end of this year or the beginning of next year will seem to suffer short-term losses, but in fact they will benefit in the long-term. The coming long-term agreement offers bargaining chips.

　　As the National Day holiday approached, a Shenzhen freight forwarder also told reporters: "The shipping price may rise before the National Day holiday at the end of the month, and it may not be possible to get the space because the factories are rushing to ship before the holiday."

The freight business of the above-mentioned freight forwarders is mainly concentrated in Shenzhen Yantian Port, which is the single largest port area in the world with the largest container throughput and a container hub port in South China. A quarter of the volume of trade with the United States.

The 2021 semi-annual report released by Shenzhen Yantian Port Co., Ltd. (000088.SZ) shows that Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd., in which the company has a stake, completed a container throughput of 1,458,800 TEUs in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%; A joint-stock company, Shenzhen Yantian West Port Terminal Co., Ltd., completed a container throughput of 1,131,900 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%.

In order to meet the peaks before the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, the Yantian Port Group also recently revealed that Yantian Port will continue to improve production efficiency, accelerate the flow of import and export goods, and ensure smooth shipments by releasing internal potential, increasing resource input, and optimizing operating procedures. Minimize the impact of "difficult to find one cabin", serious liner misses, and the impact of the epidemic.