More Chinese goods were seized!

Recently, there have been many cases of freight forwarders going bankrupt in the industry, such as problems with the capital chain, not doing the work after receiving payment, and money laundering. If we look deeper into the logistics chain, the customs clearance process is also a major problem that many sellers are worried about. Many countries’ customs have strictly checked and their goods have been detained.

Inspections upgraded, more Chinese goods seized

Mexico is one of the markets that many sellers have been cultivating. Customs clearance and inspection have always been strict, and the seizure of goods is a common occurrence. Recently, the Mexican National Tax Administration reported that many Chinese goods were seized again.

This time, Mexican authorities strictly checked more than 1.4 million Chinese products, including slippers, sandals, fans and backpacks, with a value of about 418 million pesos. In the view of the Mexican National Tax Administration, it is impossible to prove the stay and legal quantity of these products in the country, so they need to be detained.

According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of this year, the Mexican Tax Administration conducted more than 180 inspections, including inspections of ships, machinery, furniture and other industries. The total value of the seized items was about 1.6 billion pesos.

It is understandable that the Tax Administration Bureau wants to eliminate tax evasion and tax avoidance through strict inspections, but routine multiple audits will inevitably affect some customs clearance companies and freight forwarding companies.

A long-established Mexican freight forwarder had previously released a message in the industry that "Mexican customs seized 986 containers from a customs clearance company and said that all of these containers were from China", which made many sellers very worried. However, according to feedback from some peers, this information has not yet been confirmed, and the authenticity of the news needs to be verified. Some freight forwarders also said that the goods that could not be cleared have already appeared on the market.

However, a colleague pointed out a key point : "It is basically difficult to get back the containers detained by Mexico." Therefore, the editor also reminds all sellers that if there is a situation where the goods are detained by customs, it is best to follow up in time to avoid insufficient inventory and the inability to sell the products normally.

Judging from the current situation in the Mexican market, many sellers and freight forwarders have given feedback that inspections are frequent and the market is becoming increasingly difficult to operate. Mexico's local policies of increasing tariffs and changing tariff-imposed products have also indirectly affected customs clearance and freight forwarding companies, which have frequently gone bankrupt.

At the end of last year, a freight forwarding company had nine containers that failed to arrive at its overseas warehouse, incurring huge demurrage fees. In the end, the company had to ask the sellers to raise funds to redeem the goods due to changes in local policies.

There are also many freight forwarders that have gone bankrupt recently. For example, Shenzhen *He Supply Chain, which mainly deals with Mexico, was exposed to have a suspected capital chain break, and the person in charge lost contact and ran away with the donation. When peers and sellers went to the company to defend their rights, they found that the company was deserted. In addition, due to the high number of uncontrollable factors in Mexico, violent attacks and armed robberies also occur from time to time, which increases the frequency of bankruptcies.

In fact, such a thunderstorm is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of the frequent thunderstorms in the freight forwarding industry this year. Affected by multiple factors such as broken capital chain, poor management, and cargo seizure, more and more freight forwarding companies are in trouble and even running away. Even the old freight forwarders who have been operating for several years have not been able to escape this "torrent".

Another freight forwarder in Shenzhen was charged with fraud

Some time ago, a case filing notice from the Bao'an Bureau of Shenzhen City exposed the "shady operations" of a freight forwarder. The boss of Shenzhen *Long Supply Chain Co., Ltd. was investigated by the public security organs for suspected fraud.

It is understood that this is a freight forwarding company established in 2018, which has committed serious fraud of "taking money but not doing the job". According to reports from peers, after collecting payment from peers in the market, this company did not pay the relevant fees to the overseas warehouse as agreed, so that the goods of many peers were detained by the overseas warehouse.

There is another company associated with Shenzhen *Long Supply Chain Co., Ltd., called Shenzhen *Fei International Freight. One of the two companies is the docking head, and the other is the delivery head. Some peers reported that they were "cheated by these two companies." According to the seller, their goods have already arrived at the overseas warehouse, but the company just refused to deliver them.

In fact, it is not uncommon for freight forwarders to go bankrupt and run away with donations. In January, a well-established freight forwarder with considerable size in Henan was exposed to have run away with donations, with a total of more than 500 sellers’ money being taken away.

In April, a freight forwarding company in Shenzhen issued a letter of authorization, stating that the company was facing difficulties in capital turnover due to poor financial management, and it entrusted its peers to handle the fundraising for the detained containers and overseas goods.

This situation continued until July this year, ushering in a peak period of freight forwarding bankruptcy. According to incomplete statistics, in July alone, dozens of freight forwarding companies, large and small, went bankrupt, involving freight forwarding companies in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo and other regions.

Frequent financial scandals, and freight forwarding companies are often reported to have run away, are closely related to the market environment in recent years. During the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, shipping prices continued to soar, which also gave rise to a large number of freight forwarding companies that joined the logistics army . "A car every 7 days, a house every half a year" became the label of the freight forwarding industry at that time.

However, the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce has slowed down, the demand is not as good as before, the volume of goods has dropped sharply, the shipping price has been falling again and again, and the freight forwarders are having a harder time. In addition, some freight forwarders have continuously lowered their standards to compete for the market, disrupting the freight market, but on the contrary, overseas countries have continuously tightened customs inspection measures, and the container inspection rate has increased significantly. Many customs clearance companies have been rectified, so that thousands of tons of goods cannot be cleared and are stranded, and a number of freight forwarders have been eliminated.

Relevant data show that the number of newly established freight forwarding companies has been declining year by year in recent years, from 89,000 in 2019 to 15,900 in 2023. At the same time, the cancellation rate of freight forwarding companies is also quite high. In 2023 alone, a total of 44,600 freight forwarding companies were cancelled, an increase of 10.4% over the previous year. In addition, the revenue of small and medium-sized freight forwarding companies has also begun to decline.

There is no doubt that the frequent financial crises in the freight forwarding industry and the strict inspections by customs are also sounding the alarm for the industry. Only by strictly abiding by the market order and fair market environment and improving one's own risk resistance can we promote the healthy and sustainable development of ourselves and the industry.

logistics

Mexico

Freight Forwarding