General

On September 27, Ma Yong, the person in charge of a freight company in Ningbo, said that the price of sea freight from Ningbo Port and Shanghai Port to the west coast of the United States has dropped sharply, "a three-month drop in three days."

According to data provided by Zeng Yuanli, an employee of Sinotrans Co., Ltd., from June last year to early September this year, ocean freight rates continued to rise, with 20-foot standard container containers from the eastern coastal ports of China to the west coast of the United States (referred to as "Western US Route") The price rose from US$1,000 to US$10,000, and reached a peak of US$15,000. The price of other routes also rose sharply, and the shipping price to the Middle East rose from US$300 to US$4,500.

Ma Yong said that the price of sea freight on the West Coast line "should be a little more than US$12,000 per TEU at present, which is almost the price of three months ago."

Why did the soaring ocean freight suddenly turn down?

Wang Kai, a foreign trade logistics service company in Huizhou, said, “Recently, ocean logistics has experienced a sharp drop, mainly due to power cuts, which caused factories to fail to deliver goods. The whole market is out of stock, and container prices naturally cannot be speculated.”

Wang Kai, the person in charge of a trade logistics company in Huizhou, believes that the price of shipping logistics has plummeted recently, mainly due to power cuts causing factories to fail to deliver goods. When there are no goods on the market, container freight prices will naturally not be up for speculation.

In this regard, Sinotrans employee Zeng Yuanli put forward a different view. He said, "I did a small survey in Cixi and Yuyao a few days ago. Some companies that make conversion plugs and extension cords have a holiday before the National Day. The warehouses of the goods produced before can not be loaded, tens of millions or even Hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory, waiting to be shipped out."

In addition, Zeng Yuanli pointed out that seasonal effects are a major factor, and the decline in freight rates depends on shipping routes. The Western US Route fell, but the South Asian Route continued to rise. The decline in sea freight rates on the Western US Route is due to the fact that many ships return home during the National Day, and the space has naturally increased. In addition, before the National Day, the space between October 1 and 7 will be sold together, and of course the price will change.

On September 26, at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on accelerating the construction of new infrastructure in the field of transportation, Sun Wenjian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport and head of the Policy Research Office, said that in response to rising sea freight, “one box is difficult. The Ministry of Transport actively cooperates with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to coordinate my country’s container manufacturers to increase productivity and coordinate liner companies to speed up the return of empty containers. At present, the monthly production capacity of containers has increased from 200,000 TEUs in the past to 500,000 TEUs, the highest in history. "With the release of my country's new container production capacity, empty container turnover has accelerated. According to major liner companies, the shortage of empty containers has been basically eased."