General

Since the beginning of this year, global container shipping prices have been rising. The Global Container Freight Index on August 10 showed that the shipping price from China, Southeast Asia to the east coast of North America exceeded US$20,000 per TEU for the first time.

Some industry experts predict that shipping prices will not pick up until at least around the Spring Festival in 2022. The current shopping season in Europe and the United States, global shipping capacity is in short supply, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, container ship freight rates have risen sharply. 3 times, the industry also frequently produces the phenomenon of dumping cabinets.

Generally speaking, the port and miscellaneous charges of shipping will be divided into three parts:

1. Sea freight;

2. The shipowner charges the prescribed fees;

3. Freight forwarding operation fee.

An epidemic has transformed the previously half-dead freight forwarding market. The non-starting of foreign countries will increase domestic foreign trade orders. There will also be a big outbreak of Amazon in 2020, and many LCL will go to Shanghai. This turns the entire market into an incremental market.

In general, the main reason for the current increase in ocean freight is due to the shortage of ships and containers. Compared with before the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of containers in the shipping industry is much smaller, coupled with port congestion and shortage of workers, resulting in a simultaneous increase in the cost of containers staying in the port. .

Partial closure of Ningbo Zhoushan Port

On August 10, a worker who tested positive for the new crown virus was found at the Ningbo Zhoushan Port Terminal. On the 11th, Meishan Wharf issued a statement announcing that due to the terminal system failure, all loading and lifting services will be suspended from now on, and the resumption time will be notified separately.

Zhoushan Port is the third busiest port in the world and an important hub in East China, and the cargo throughput of Meishan Port accounts for 20% of Zhoushan Port. The move to close the port immediately caused concerns from the outside world.

Bloomberg reported that the outside world is worried that the partial closure of the terminal at Zhoushan Port may further aggravate the tightness of shipping and commodity supply, curb economic growth, and push up prices. The report also claims that due to Christmas and other holiday products, seaborne trade usually rises at the end of the year, which may have a particularly serious impact on the world economy.

According to Josh Brazil, vice president of Project44, a US supply chain intelligence company, "If this situation continues until Black Friday and the holiday purchasing season, it will have far-reaching consequences for downstream businesses."

Crew under the influence of the epidemic

On August 11th, the Hongjin crew killed the ship.

Hongjin was not the first ship to be trapped. EASTERN DELIGHT, which is 300 kilometers away, is also asking for help.

Dongyue is of Liberian nationality, and 12 of the 19 crew members on board are of Chinese nationality. Five Chinese crew members, including the second officer Liu Teng, originally planned to disembark at a certain port. "The shipowner and the crew company agree, but the ship agent told the port that the port cannot arrange crew vacations." Dongyue's letter of assistance stated that it consulted a number of local shipping agents for shift plans, "all due to the inability to complete the procedures during the epidemic. The reason was rejected."

This is not the first rejection. Liu Teng said that their five crew members were initially prepared to change shifts at a certain port in Guangdong at the end of July and early August.

According to the "Maritime Labour Convention 2006", seafarers' service generally shall not exceed 11 months. Under normal circumstances, the crew of international shipping will disembark and rest after working continuously for about 8 months. Before the epidemic, if the port finds that there are crew members that have exceeded the time limit stipulated in the labor convention, they can be repatriated forcibly and the company can be replaced.

But the epidemic changed everything. According to China News Agency, as of January 2021, more than 400,000 seafarers around the world are still stranded at sea. Many of them have worked continuously for 17 months, far exceeding the industry and regulatory restrictions on working hours.

The crew used to call the days of sailing at sea "water jail". Wandering on the sea for months at every turn is a test of people's psychological endurance. "Before the epidemic, it was possible to disembark while docking. After the epidemic, there is no port in the world that will allow crews to go ashore." Liu Teng said, this means that from the moment they step on the deck, the crew will begin to face the contract period. At least 8 months in prison. With the various variables brought about by the epidemic, the "fixed-term imprisonment" that could have been estimated has now become "life imprisonment."

Liu Teng's crew has begun to suffer from insomnia. The anxiety caused by being unable to land on the ship for a long time and the pressure caused by the "water prison" without knowing the deadline made them feel tormented.

summary

Affected by the epidemic, container shortages and port congestion have caused freight rates to skyrocket, and container shipping companies "lay down and make money." The problem of crew shifts is getting worse, and no one solves it or even wants to solve it. More than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic, relevant departments have not issued standard operating procedures and responsibility allocation plans for terminals, stating that "we still need to wait for the follow-up industry implementation rules to be released."

The supporting process is not perfect, how to make the crew feel at ease to run the ship, no one runs the ship, naturally leading to the increase in labor costs. The editor believes that in addition to solving economic problems under the epidemic, people in the transportation, medical and other industries that have been affected by the epidemic need to invest more humanistic care.

The quality of their lives cannot be guaranteed. How can society be stable, so how can we feel at ease?