General

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, global shipping prices have soared, and so far, freight rates have more than doubled by more than seven times. Undoubtedly, the high fever of cross-border logistics has not returned, which has pushed the freight rate to a new height. According to the export announcement of the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, the China Export Container Index (CCFI) closed at 3235.26 on September 24, reaching a high point, up 2.5% from the previous issue. The routes in Europe and the United States have generally risen. Among them, the US West route has increased by 4 points compared with the previous period, and it has accelerated to 2271.40 points. Many people in the industry said that rising shipping prices are constantly eroding the profits of cross-border companies.

Can the industry's "self-discipline" restrain the increase in freight rates?

From the supply side, as the overseas epidemic has not been alleviated, China's supply chain has been the first to recover in the world and has undertaken a large number of overseas return orders. Most of the overseas demand for clothing, furniture, and groceries that rely on sea transportation has soared, and shipments have risen sharply. At the moment when the demand for space is greater than the supply, the freight rate is expected to continue to be at a high level.

A freight forwarder revealed that the current popular routes between China and the United States still maintain a slight increase, with average prices above 18,000 US dollars.

Faced with rising shipping prices. Recently, the leading shipping companies CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, ONE and other shipping companies have announced the suspension of spot freight increases.

So after reaching the "stop price consensus", can it alleviate the current situation of high shipping prices?

In this regard, some shipping analysts pointedly pointed out that what the leading shipping company indicated was only a suspension of freight increases, and did not rule out the levy of various surcharges.

Facts have also proved that this is indeed the case. Recently, shipping companies have issued announcements stating that surcharges will be imposed. Hugo cross-border learned that the global container liner company Mediterranean Shipping has issued two successive price increase notices and launched three major price increase items in one go: freight increase (GRI), peak season surcharge (PSS) and port congestion charge (CGS) .

Judging from the three fees (GRI, PSS and the new round of CGS) that will be pushed up on October 15th, the 40-foot container has risen as high as 9188 US dollars, and the 45-foot container has increased astonishing US$10,761! The scope of this increase in freight rates is also very special. It is aimed at cargoes whose ports of departure are South China Ports and Hong Kong, and their destination ports are East and West US ports.

At the same time, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk’s subsidiary Hamburg Süd Shipping Company also recently announced a peak season surcharge (PSS) for cargo on certain routes.

Various facts have shown that before many shipping giants announced that the freezing of sea freight was only a freeze on spot prices, and additional charges were excluded from the freight benchmark.

In this regard, a seller complained: "I thought that the market freight had a chance to maintain the status quo, but I didn't expect it to be a way of increasing prices. As expected, the capitalists have no emotions." Click here to consult Yunfan Wisdom US FBA immediately. By sea.

Sea transportation is "easy to be blocked and difficult to pass", is air transportation a better choice?

From the perspective of popular routes, the "easy to block but difficult to pass" destination ports will also "add a handful of firewood" to the increase in freight rates in the peak season at the end of the year.

The latest data from the analysis company Vessels Value shows that there are currently 427 container ships waiting in line for berths outside ports around the world, with a total capacity of 2914,445 teu, an increase of 14% compared with the 376 ships in early September. The inability of a large number of containers to enter the port has caused the insecurity of the logistics timeliness of the goods in transit, and indirectly aggravated the tension of shipping and increased the cost of many sellers.

Some sellers feedback: "I purchased the goods early this year, but I didn't expect it to be shipped out due to tight logistics. On the one hand, I had to reject some orders, and on the other hand, I had to bear the compensation problem due to the failure to deliver in time."

Not only the seller. Facing the uncertainty of maritime transportation, Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, a major furniture manufacturer and sales company in the United States, and IKEA, a major furniture manufacturer and sales company, have all taken actions to independently secure ships and build a maritime logistics supply chain to cope with the boom in the United States at the end of the year. Demand for goods.

Under the pressure of freight, the dilemma of lack of containers, the congestion of the port... the superposition of various factors has caused many sellers to turn their attention to air transportation. The product manager of Yunfan Wisdom, who has many years of cross-border experience, said bluntly: "Affected by the current shipping situation. Many shipping customers are turning to air transportation, and the order quantity is not small."

"In fact, the price of air freight has been increasing recently, but the increase is not as obvious as that of ocean freight. Coupled with the advantage of air freight in terms of timeliness, these sellers have switched to air freight after weighing the pros and cons." The manager further added.

According to data from CICC Logistics Research, in the first week of September, the average cross-border air freight rate increased by 13% from the previous week and 68% from the same period in 2020. Since the beginning of 2021, the average freight rate has increased by 21% year-on-year. Among them, the U.S. line: Shanghai-North America and Hong Kong-North America freight rates rose 23% and 3% respectively from the previous month, and 82% and 66% higher than the same period last year.

It is reported that the current air freight from Shanghai to North America has reached US$11 per kilogram.