Price hike! Shipping prices rise again, COSCO Shipping Holdings makes over 200 million yuan a day...

The shipping price of Matson has rebounded strongly, and the container trailer fee is also going to rise ...! In addition, the fierce typhoon has also put pressure on cross-border logistics. The price increase and congestion of cross-border logistics have hit a large number of cross-border sellers. The shipping companies that are closely related to cross-border sellers have made a lot of money. According to the third quarter performance forecast of COSCO Shipping Holdings, the daily net profit has easily exceeded 100 million.

In addition to the price increase, the new policy has also made the majority of cross-border people upset. Recently, the cross-border circle has been circulated: starting from October 1, 2021, Amazon warehouse deliveries must be real-name registered, and the FBA numbers of the goods delivered to the warehouse must be correctly matched, otherwise they will not be able to be put on the shelves. Some people are worried about this statement, and some say it is a rumor... Combined with the latest feedback from cross-border people, the editor has also learned the latest information about the incident.

Shipping prices rise again, container trailer charges are also expected to rise

The editor learned that with the arrival of Typhoon Kompasa, Yantian and Shekou Ports stopped all container delivery operations in the early morning of the 12th!

What is much more frustrating than a typhoon is that prices in all aspects of the logistics chain will increase as the tide rises.

With the recent rise in oil prices, container shipping companies are facing tremendous operating pressure. In order to maintain the stability and healthy development of the industry, container shipping associations in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places have recently issued notices or suggestions to adjust related fees.

The shipping price plummeted some time ago. The price of Matsun fell from nearly 30 yuan at its peak to less than 20 yuan. The price reduction came suddenly. Many sellers were moved that the goods that had been stranded for a long time could finally be shipped out. However, the good times did not last long. After the National Day holiday, freight forwarders issued notices one after another: Matsun is going to increase prices again!

A: Next week, the prices of regular ships of Matson will generally increase by 4 yuan, and the delivery time of overtime ships will be slower.

B: Next week, the shipping rates of Matsushita Shipping will increase. One-third of the ships on the US-Canada route will be stopped in the second half of the month. By then, it will be a common situation that one will have money but cannot buy space .

C: As expected, shipping costs are going to go up again. When the price was reduced, I said that this situation would not last long.

A freight forwarder told me that the price of Matson has been raised twice, and the price of ocean freight will rise again next week. I found from the latest quotation issued by this freight forwarder that the price of limited time delivery has increased by 3/KG, and Matson limited time delivery has increased by 21/22/23. "The ocean freight price has really increased a lot this year. I really miss the quotation around 9-10-11 in 2019." Many cross-border sellers said that they have not had time to enjoy the joy of the ocean freight price reduction, and they have received the bad news of the ocean freight price increase again.

Data shows that from June last year to early September this year, ocean freight rates continued to rise. The skyrocketing ocean freight rates suddenly turned downward . Regarding the short-lived phenomenon of ocean freight price reduction, there are many voices on the Internet. One of the most discussed speculations is that it is difficult to cut off power supply, which has reduced the number of exported goods and caused the price to fall.

Some industry insiders also speculated that the decline in volume and price on US West Coast routes was mainly due to the following reasons:

The congestion in the west coast of the United States continued, and the ships were stranded at the port for longer periods of time. The shippers knew about the congestion in the west coast of the United States, and estimated that if the goods were shipped via the west coast of the United States in September, they would definitely not arrive before Christmas. Therefore, from September, the orders were changed to the east coast of the United States. The volume and price of the east coast route increased. At the same time, the media reported that the congestion in US ports spread from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of the United States. Freight forwarders still stockpiled a large amount of space in the west coast of the United States based on experience. As a result, before Christmas, the demand in the west coast of the United States had partially shifted to the east coast of the United States, resulting in a temporary lack of buyers. The freight forwarding prices in the west coast of the United States plummeted. This can explain why the east coast of the United States and Europe lines are still strong recently, while only the price of the west coast of the United States has loosened. This is because the congestion in the west coast of the United States has caused customers to not want to wait, and demand has decreased.

Regardless of the real reason, the peak season shipping price increase is here again.

Congestion remains, cross-border sellers are troubled by out-of-stock issues

Due to price increases and long-term congestion, a large number of cross-border sellers are facing a shortage of goods.

One of the cross-border sellers said that the stock of a best-selling product currently on sale is very low. In order to further reduce the ranking drop and other problems caused by out-of-stock, he now has to raise the price to slow down the speed of out-of-stock.

Another cross-border seller said that except for a few batches of goods shipped by Matsushita this month, all the shipments before October were the slowest. The ships in August are still waiting to be unloaded. It is useless to wait and see. He now only hopes that he can get through October safely.

As luck would have it, an Amazon seller has been out of stock due to a batch of emergency goods being stuck at the port. "I didn't ship more last week when the ocean freight price dropped. This week, I heard that the regular shipping price of Matson has started to increase again. Alas, I didn't seize the opportunity to ship when the price dropped."

How much trouble does out-of-stock bring? Many Amazon sellers have already tasted the bitter fruit.

Seller A: After the best-selling variant was out of stock , only one order was sold for the entire listing. It currently appears that it will take at least a month for restocking to arrive on Amazon.

Seller B: The best-selling products are always out of stock. Now it takes dozens of days or even longer for the listing to replenish the stock. When the product is about to run out of stock, the price is increased for a while, but the advertising effect is suddenly poor and the cost per click also soars.

Seller C: Before the product was out of stock, the organic ranking of the main keywords was in the first 3 pages, but now it has dropped to after the 4th page...

Summarizing the feedback from cross-border sellers, we can find that the current prominent problem in foreign trade is the contradiction between orders and logistics. It is difficult to get a container for sea transportation, the goods cannot move, the prices are abnormally high, the prices of air transportation and express delivery are even more expensive, and the carrying capacity is also small, resulting in too high logistics costs .

Industry insiders said that the epidemic has put the online economy on the fast track of development, but during this special period, domestic manufacturing companies must not expand blindly, because once the epidemic improves, it will take a long time for global inventory reduction, resulting in a mess in some industries with overcapacity.

COSCO SHIPPING Holdings makes hundreds of millions of yuan in net profit every day, but cross-border logistics is still congested

The vast majority of cross-border sellers are going through a difficult time, and shipping companies are counting their money until their hands are numb.

According to preliminary estimates, COSCO Shipping is expected to achieve a net profit of approximately RMB 30.49 billion attributable to shareholders of the listed company in the third quarter of 2021. The company achieved a net profit of approximately RMB 67.588 billion attributable to shareholders of the listed company in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of approximately 1650.92% compared with the same period of the previous year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was approximately RMB 67.421 billion, an increase of approximately 1781.53% compared with the same period of the previous year.

In the first half of this year, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has achieved its best half-year performance in history, with a net profit of 37.1 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 32 times year-on-year.

Industry insiders said that according to the current market development situation, it is highly likely that COSCO SHIPPING’s annual net profit will exceed 100 billion yuan.

As major economies around the world gradually recover, under the influence of multiple factors such as demand growth, repeated epidemics, and limited supply, the global logistics supply chain continues to be challenged and impacted by complex situations such as port congestion, container shortages, and inland transportation delays. The supply and demand relationship in container transportation remains tense .

The latest data shows a record 146 cargo ships anchored off the California coast , carrying billions of dollars worth of goods.

According to the Southern California Marine Exchange, 76 container ships carrying clothing, furniture and electronics have been stranded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for nearly three months. The ships have a total of 14,000 containers, each with merchandise valued at about $100,000.

According to data from the Southern California Marine Exchange's master queue list, Los Angeles has nearly 500,000 20-foot containers and 12 million metric tons of cargo waiting to dock and unload at the port.

Foreign media said that cargo congestion will last at least until next summer.

Port congestion has also led many large retailers to start renting ships and purchasing containers. Walmart, IKEA and Home Depot have already taken action.

There are also reports that warehouses on the West Coast do not have enough space to store goods. About 98% of warehouses in Southern California are overwhelmed. There are also difficulties in recruiting workers and a shortage of containers, which has had a major impact on the transportation industry.

How do cross-border sellers solve logistics problems?

How can cross-border e-commerce break the "blockage" and seek stability during the peak season to alleviate the negative impact of sea transportation? Yibai Network, a big seller, said that in the early product planning, it effectively controlled the proportion of large-scale warehouse products and also effectively evaluated the profit margin of good products. At present, there are relatively few large-scale warehouse products. Based on this important reason, Yibai's operations in the second half of the year were less affected by sea transportation.

Under the situation of tight global shipping, the big seller Lechuang said that it is making full use of the advantages of overseas warehouses . It is reported that the utilization rate of Lechuang's public overseas warehouses has reached more than 90%, and the company is also gradually expanding the area of ​​overseas warehouses according to market conditions to meet customer needs.

The relevant person in charge of Nanpeng Logistics said that shipping in Europe and the United States continues to be popular, and the belly cargo space of air passenger planes is far from recovering and the prices will continue to rise. Express delivery has seen large-scale queues, especially in Hong Kong. The European railway is affected by the ports and the timeliness is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Qatar Airways has no timeliness advantage due to the epidemic and international political factors. Faced with the continued rise in freight rates, the stocking cycle has been lengthened!

Based on the above background, cross-border sellers need to pay attention to the following factors when choosing logistics :

1. First of all, you must maintain full communication with the logistics company to understand the other party’s warehouse space and changes in market freight rates.

2. For hot-selling products, the supply chain should rationally arrange overseas warehouses in advance.

3. There are many abnormalities during the peak season, so communicate with the logistics provider about the compensation plan.

4. Choose an established logistics provider that is trustworthy, professional, and has a long history. They have more resources during peak seasons.

Does Amazon require real-name registration for delivery?

After the National Day, a piece of news spread across the cross-border circle. Many freight forwarders were reminding their customers that Amazon warehouse deliveries require real-name registration, and the cancelled shipment numbers can no longer be used!

Let’s first take a look at the notice from the freight forwarder to the seller ↓

Starting from October 1, 2021, Amazon warehouse deliveries must be made with real names, and all FBA numbers must be valid and usable. Expired or invalid FBA numbers will not be put on the shelves even if they are sent to Amazon, and the result on Amazon will be loss or dumping of goods.

After several freight forwarders issued similar messages, Amazon sellers also began to panic ...

If Amazon really implements this policy, it will have a certain impact on sellers, but is this really the case?

In this regard, a freight forwarder said: "Regarding the recent hotly-publicized issue of Amazon's real-name system for delivery to warehouses, the following is advice from our American colleagues. We have not encountered this issue from the 1st to today's delivery , but it is hard to say whether Amazon has a transition period for handling it! It is recommended that sellers contact Amazon customer service for information, and do not need to only listen to the freight forwarder's advice. After all, freight forwarders are professional in customs clearance and transportation, but they are relatively unfamiliar with Amazon's operations and rules! "

In response to the statement that "Amazon goods need to provide a valid tracking code before they can enter the warehouse", Weibo blogger "Mr. Feng's 198308" said that regarding the Amazon tracking code (PRO), we have confirmed with multiple parties overseas and gave the following interpretation:

1) The tracking code (PRO) can be added later, but it must be completed before the goods arrive at Amazon, otherwise it will affect the defect rate of lost tracking information;

2) Appointment ID or FBA shipment number cannot replace the tracking number (PRO);

3) The tracking code (PRO) is a tracking number that can be used to track the location of each box. The website that can track the goods is not limited to express delivery websites. Any website that can track the goods can be used.

After interviews and verifications, as well as a careful study of Amazon's policies, the editor finally discovered that the notice issued by the freight forwarder in recent times originated from a policy recently released by Amazon.

Amazon’s new policy, FBA sellers please pay attention!

Amazon issued a notice regarding FBA as early as mid-August, notifying FBA sellers that they would need to provide carrier tracking information starting October 1, 2021.

The notice issued by the freight forwarder mentioned above was also derived from this announcement, but the freight forwarder's notice over-interpreted the policy released by Amazon. The following is the specific content of the announcement released by Amazon ↓

As part of our ongoing efforts to receive your shipments faster and make your inventory available for sale more quickly, Amazon has updated its policies related to carriers and tracking information. The updated policies apply to sellers who send shipments to Amazon outside of the Amazon Partnered Carrier Program.

Starting October 1, 2021, FBA sellers will be required to enter the carrier name and tracking information (if available) during shipment creation to provide tracking information before your shipment arrives at a fulfillment center. This change does not apply to sellers using the Amazon Partnered Carrier Program or Amazon Global Logistics , as Amazon generates the tracking information for you.

As can be seen from the above policy, sellers using the Amazon Partnered Carrier Program or AGL do not need to provide the carrier’s name and tracking information.

Do other sellers have to provide this information? Careful sellers may have noticed that Amazon mentioned the words "if any" in this announcement , which also shows that Amazon does not force sellers to fill in this kind of information.

However, if the seller provides the carrier name and tracking information, Amazon will also provide sellers with some "benefits"↓

Amazon said in the announcement that providing carrier tracking information will help Amazon receive your inventory more efficiently and avoid delays in the receiving process. In addition, if your product is out of stock, as long as the inventory pre-sale function is enabled, Amazon will adjust your shipping products to a saleable state based on real-time tracking information. In order to shorten the time to receive shipments, please make sure that the tracking code of the package shipment corresponds correctly to the Amazon logistics box number label on each box.

In fact, this is still a good thing for sellers. Sellers can provide tracking information to Amazon through the standardized shipment creation process in the seller platform, the Track Shipment tab on the shipment overview page, and the Amazon Marketplace Web Service.

Of course, in this announcement, Amazon not only provided convenience to sellers, but also put forward new assessments for them.

Amazon assesses the tracking information defect rate, and sellers who violate the rules will be restricted from creating shipments

Amazon stated at the end of the announcement that starting October 1, 2021, for all shipments shipped to Amazon using self-selected carriers, Amazon will measure your tracking information defect rate based on the missing tracking information for each of your shipments.

Defects will be displayed in the Issues tab of the Shipment Overview page in Seller Central. Initially, only defects will be displayed. In the future, you may need to confirm each defect before you can create a new shipment. If your guidance defect level is "Elevated", Amazon may contact the seller for one-on-one guidance; if your guidance defect level is "Important", Amazon may restrict the seller from creating new shipments to Amazon for 24 to 72 hours.

Every time Amazon releases an announcement, there are more or less sellers criticizing the new policy in the comment section, and this time is no exception ↓

Seller A: Amazon wants to force sellers to use the Amazon Partnered Carrier Program or Amazon Global Logistics. Amazon wants to make more money.

Seller B: Amazon is trying to systematically destroy small businesses, especially small freight companies.

Seller C: AGL is too expensive, but some carriers don’t provide delivery information. It’s really difficult for Amazon sellers…

Complaints aside, sellers still have to comply with Amazon's regulations. On the surface, Amazon does not force sellers to provide carrier and tracking information, but it does assess the lack of tracking information for shipments. In other words, if sellers do not provide this information, resulting in a high defect rate in tracking information, Amazon will restrict sellers from creating shipments!

Amazon also mentioned in the policy that based on the carrier name, delivery method and tracking information you provide, we can pass all tracking actions provided by the carrier to our operation center. We use this information to efficiently plan inventory receipt so that your in-transit inventory can be put on the shelf for sale.

Amazon also recommends that sellers use carriers that provide shipment tracking information, as such carriers provide Amazon with real-time delivery status, helping to minimize receipt delays and avoid out-of-stock risks.

Sellers should still follow Amazon’s requirements and choose carriers that can provide shipment tracking information. This will not only avoid the risk of out-of-stock situations, but will also prevent them from being restricted from creating shipments due to the defect rate of tracking information. You can choose not to have the benefits, but you must avoid the risks!