Sea and air freight prices keep rising! Sellers: This year's peak season is going to be "cool"

Recently, global shipping costs have been rising rapidly.

Extreme weather, labor shortages, and the impact of the epidemic have overwhelmed the global supply chain. Against this backdrop, shipping costs have continued to rise, and sellers have said that the prices are too high to ship. Even if they want to ship, there is no space. Even if they do ship, they don’t know when the goods will arrive ...

A container is sold for $40,000? Freight forwarder: It is more profitable to sell the container directly

For sellers, with the peak season just around the corner, shipping has naturally become a top priority. However, at this critical juncture, many cross-border people are tripped up by shipping costs.

Ocean freight rates have been rising again and again. Some freight forwarders said that the price of a container at Matson has been "spiked" to $40,000 . "Many of our peers no longer deal in shipping. It is more profitable to sell containers directly." A freight forwarder expressed such emotion.

The freight forwarder said frankly that the number of containers is limited, but the demand for containers is currently in short supply. If you want to get a container, you have to pay a high price. The price of a container has been "speculated" to US$40,000, but this is just the sea freight. If tariffs and last-mile delivery are added, the total price will be even higher!

"Although sea freight prices are generally rising, many customers are in a hurry and other sea freight services are slow, so the demand for Matson is particularly high and the price naturally goes up." A freight forwarder said that the US route will only go up and not down. If sea freight prices go up, air freight prices will most likely also go up.

One seller said: "Evergreen's delivery by air is slow and stable, ZIM's delivery time depends on luck, and Matsun's delivery is too expensive to afford, and all the profits have been eaten up by the increase in sea freight prices. Especially Matsun's delivery price, which is almost the same as air delivery two years ago."

Since August, the shipping price has indeed been rising again and again, and sellers are complaining bitterly. According to the freight forwarder, Matson has raised prices again this week. Yesterday, we received a notice that the prices for the US West Coast, US Central and US East Coast have risen to 28, 29 and 30 respectively.

After hearing the news, the sellers were filled with grief:

"The freight forwarder's quote is breathtaking and too harsh"

"I haven't picked up the Meisen I sent last month yet, alas"

"Will it continue to rise? It will soon break 30, and every order I place will result in a loss."

In short, what really makes sellers unacceptable is not only the soaring shipping prices, but also the delivery time that is not proportional to the prices. The shipping prices are getting higher and higher, but the delivery time is decreasing again and again.

At first, when the shipping price started to rise, many sellers were still hesitant about whether to ship. But recently, a freight forwarder revealed to the editor: "There is a severe shortage of containers during this period. Matson has no space at all. Price is no longer the primary factor for customers to consider."

Faced with rising shipping prices, sellers finally gritted their teeth and shipped the goods, but subsequent timeliness issues followed. One seller reported: "I haven't picked up the Meisen I shipped on August 3 yet. The price at that time was 26, which is really expensive and slow. I feel cheated..."

September and October are the peak seasons, and sellers' shipment demand continues to increase. Therefore, many practitioners have speculated that in the future, not only sea freight prices, but also air freight prices may show an upward trend.

Airport warehouses are overwhelmed, making it difficult for sellers to ship during peak season

Recently, air freight has fluctuated again, with freight rates on all routes generally rising, ranging from double to dozens of times. As the largest international air cargo port in China, warehouses at Shanghai Airport are also experiencing warehouse overflows...

In a logistics storage area at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, warehouses with an area of ​​more than 15,000 square meters are all filled with goods, and the warehouses are seriously overcrowded, and the space shortage has also emerged. It is understood that since August, multiple warehouses have been overcrowded, and the freight rates of various routes have continued to rise recently. The number of flights to Europe has been greatly reduced, and the freight rate has increased by about 25 yuan per kilogram.

In this regard, practitioners also have their own opinions ↓

“The price of air freight has indeed increased a lot since the epidemic, and it has never returned to the pre-epidemic level since then.”

"I wanted to ship by air, but the price almost killed me"

“The air freight prices are rising so fast, are they afraid that I won’t lose enough money?”

"There is a shortage of containers for sea transportation, and domestic goods have to be shipped to the United States. However, due to congestion at US ports and insufficient number of transshipment containers, many ships return empty, resulting in a large number of goods being unable to be transported. When containers are in short supply and delivery time is extended, it is reasonable for air freight prices to rise accordingly." Faced with high freight costs, sellers have no choice but to comfort themselves.

Based on the situation in previous years, we have now entered the real stockpiling period. Major festivals in European and American countries will arrive one after another. Whether the goods can arrive before then will greatly affect the sellers' performance for the whole year.

Some sellers said, "It is too difficult to replenish stocks during the peak season. If the goods cannot be transported normally in late September, this year's Christmas will be a miss", "We have to start preparing goods for the peak season now. Merchandise is too expensive, and the inventory quota given by Amazon is too small. I don't know how to prepare for the peak season."

Here, the editor would also like to remind all sellers that this period of time each year is the peak season for shipping domestic home appliances, toys , and furniture to the United States. In addition to the impact of the epidemic in countries around the world, in order to ensure normal sales, everyone should make shipping plans in advance and try to avoid or reduce losses.

The port continues to be congested, with 5,000 containers waiting to be auctioned

Domestically, containers are in short supply and hard to come by; in Nigerian ports, 5,000 containers are abandoned and waiting to be auctioned.

Recently, the Nigerian Ports Authority issued a notice to auction unclaimed containers at the port in order to ease port congestion. It is understood that there are currently more than 5,000 containers of overdue goods at Nigerian ports , some of which have been occupied for as long as a year.

Nigeria said that the sharp increase in abandoned goods has made it urgent to solve the problem of port congestion. These 5,000 abandoned containers seriously occupy the available space for import containers. In order to better control the congestion, only such measures can be taken.

Generally speaking, if these containers stay at the port for more than 90 days after unloading, they will be called overdue containers, and customs will have the right to seize them.

In order to solve the congestion problem, it is not uncommon for major ports to auction container cargo. Previously, Chittagong had announced the auction of 7,045 container cargoes, which would not only ease the pressure on the port but also increase tax revenue for the customs authorities.

In summary, the increase in supply chain costs, the inability of sellers to ship goods, and the rise in sea and air freight prices are all related to port congestion, and auctioning container cargo can only be regarded as one of the ways to alleviate this problem.

The peak season is approaching. No matter what the future trend of cross-border logistics prices will be, sellers must make all possible plans in advance to better prepare for the peak season!

Mason

Ocean Freight

Peak Season