Sea freight rising crazy, how to solve the box worry? See how companies respond to change!

Under the influence of multiple factors, the shipping price of foreign trade exports shows a rising trend. In the face of rising sea freight, foreign trade enterprises around the country to change the strain.

Freight rates have risen on many sea routes

When the reporter came to Yiwu port, the staff told the reporter that the rise in shipping prices caught some traders by surprise, had to delay the shipment, and the backlog of goods was serious.

Zhejiang Logistics: Since the beginning of April, the warehouse has been a little out of stock. Customers may adjust some shipment plans according to the freight rate, and if the freight rate is too high, it may be delayed and delayed.

Sea freight continues to rise, especially to the small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises export challenges.

Yiwu Company: Some produced goods, for example, shipped on the 10th, but can not get the container on the 10th, a tow may be delayed for ten days, a week, even half a month. Our backlog cost is about one or two million yuan this year.

Nowadays, the shortage of containers and the shortage of shipping capacity are still worsening, and many foreign trade customers' shipping reservations are directly scheduled to the middle of June, and some routes are "difficult to find one class".

Zhejiang freight forwarder business personnel: Almost every ship is reserved at least 30 high boxes, but now it is difficult to find a cabin, I have left so much space, and now it is not enough.

It is understood that a number of shipping companies issued a letter of price increase, the rate of the main route has been increased, and now, the freight rate of individual routes from Asia to Latin America has skyrocketed from more than $2,000 per 40-foot box to $9,000 to $10,000, and the freight rate of Europe, North America and other routes has almost doubled.

Ningbo Shipping Researcher: Our latest index on May 10, 2024, closed at 1812.8 points, up 13.3% from the previous month. Its rise began around the middle of April, and the index rose significantly in the past three weeks, all of which exceeded 10%.

A combination of factors caused the rise in sea freight

In the traditional off-season of foreign trade, sea freight continues to rise, what is the reason behind it? How will it affect our foreign trade export?

Experts said that the rise in shipping costs reflects a certain degree of warming in global foreign trade. In the first four months of this year, the import and export value of China's trade in goods increased by 5.7% year-on-year, and the growth of 8% in April, exceeding market expectations.

Associate Researcher, Institute of Foreign Economics, Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research: Since 2024, the marginal improvement of demand in Europe and the United States, China's foreign trade situation is good, providing basic support for the rise in shipping demand and rising shipping prices. At the same time, affected by the uncertainty of trade policy after the US election, and superimposed on the expectation of rising freight rates in the peak season, many buyers also started pre-stocking, leading to a further rise in shipping demand.

From the supply side, the situation in the Red Sea is still one of the main factors affecting the trend of the container shipping market. The continued tension in the Red Sea has caused cargo ships to bypass the Cape of Good Hope, significantly increasing the route distance and sailing days, and driving up sea freight prices.

Associate researcher, Institute of Foreign Economic Research, Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research: Rising international fuel oil prices, port congestion in many countries have also pushed up the cost and price of shipping.

Experts said that shipping prices fluctuate in the short term, bringing costs and timeliness challenges to foreign trade shipments, but with the past cycle, prices will fall back, which will not have a significant impact on the macro side of China's foreign trade.

Take the initiative to respond to changes

In the face of rising sea freight, foreign trade enterprises are also responding to changes. How do they control costs and solve shipping problems?

Head of Ningbo foreign trade enterprise: The European and Middle East markets have continued to increase orders recently, and the order volume has increased by about 50% compared with the same period last year. However, due to the continuous rise in shipping prices and the inability to book shipping space, the company has delayed the shipment of 4 containers of goods, and the latest one is nearly a month later than the original time.

A 40-foot container that used to cost around $3,500 to ship to Saudi Arabia now costs $5,500 to $6,500. Trying to cope with the plight of rising sea freight, he in addition to making space to stack the backlog of goods, but also suggested that customers take air freight and Central Europe train, or use the more economical mode of transportation of high cabinets to solve the flexible solution.

Traders have also taken the initiative to deal with the challenges of rising freight rates and insufficient capacity, and factories have increased production efforts from the original one production line to two, shortening the front-end production time.

Shenzhen: We used to be a pure Marine fast ship, and now we will choose a slower ship to lengthen the cargo operation cycle to reduce costs. We will also take some necessary operational measures to reduce the cost of the operation side, plan the shipment earlier, send the goods to the overseas warehouse, and then transfer the goods from the overseas warehouse to the US warehouse.

When the reporter interviewed cross-border logistics enterprises and international freight forwarding companies, he also found that in order to ensure timeliness, some foreign trade enterprises began to ship orders for the second half of the year in May and June.

Ningbo freight forwarder: After long distance and long transportation time, it must be sent in advance.

Shenzhen supply chain: We estimate that this situation will last for another two to three months. July and August are the peak season for traditional shipments, and August and September are the peak season for e-commerce. It is estimated that this year's peak season will last for a long time.