European and American customs continue to conduct strict inspections! Freight forwarders: beware of unexpected events

How is the current situation of cross-border e-commerce logistics?

Cross-border logistics is closely related to the seller's operating costs and profits. However, during the off-season in the first half of this year, not only did the shipping prices continue to rise, but even the customs clearance checkpoint also encountered frequent problems. The latest news shows that the European customs inspection rate has skyrocketed, and the US inspection rate has almost been halved.

The inspection rate of European and American customs is too high! Freight forwarders: beware of the thunder

European and American customs inspection efforts continue to increase.

In the United States, there was news as early as around April that customs had implemented more stringent inspection requirements during routine inspections. Now the inspection intensity has not been reduced, but has become even greater.

People familiar with the matter revealed that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection ( CBP) mainly checks three aspects of issues. The first is whether the description of the goods is vague or non-compliant. The second is whether the goods violate the declaration regulations or whether there are prohibited items hidden in the container. The third is the T86 customs clearance issue. Customs requires sellers to submit detailed data sets when the goods arrive, otherwise there will be varying degrees of customs clearance delays.

The customs clearance situation in Europe seems to be more complicated. Delays, inspections and cargo detentions in channels such as Qatar Airways, railways and sea freight are endless.

"Tax issues are now the top priority of European inspections." People familiar with the matter revealed that Europe has frequently mentioned the issue of removing the 150 euro import tax-free clause in recent times, and customs in various countries have also stepped up their crackdown on various means of tax evasion.

According to news in April, Hungarian customs has been increasing its inspection of illegal imports. X-ray machines were temporarily added at the customs clearance points. However, due to the need for debugging, the machines are unstable and require queuing for scanning, which has led to a decrease in customs clearance efficiency. It is roughly estimated that the impact will be 3-7 working days, and a large number of cabinets will be queued for customs clearance. Moreover, as the inspection rate of customs clearance agencies increases, the number of customs personnel is insufficient, which makes the customs clearance situation more severe.

A freight forwarder said that since the Hungarian customs launched strict inspections on customs clearance, many customers have been affected and the final customs clearance time of each channel has been delayed to a certain extent.

It is worth noting that Hungary and Poland have strictly investigated tax issues such as under-declaration and tax package, which has led to major customs clearance agencies transferring customs clearance points and a large number of goods have been transferred to Belgium. However, it is well known that the customs clearance environment in Belgium is very strict. As a result, Belgium's already high inspection rate has become even higher.

As for Qatar Airways , starting from mid- May , the time to transit through the EU will increase from 1-2 days to at least 6-8 days, and the overall efficiency of Qatar Airways may increase by 5-7 days. However, Poland 's strict customs clearance inspections are still ongoing , and if you want to bypass Latvia, you will still face congestion and queues .

Inspection is not scary, but the seizure of goods is embarrassing. If the cabinet itself is compliant, the products are compliant, there is no counterfeit or infringement, and the products are declared truthfully, the impact will naturally be small. However, if there are problems such as concealment and underreporting, the inspection port will naturally pile up a lot of non-compliant goods, and the seller will face various negative impacts afterwards.

Freight rates will rise sharply in June! Freight forwarder: The market is in chaos

In addition, the issue of rising freight rates has also been a hot topic in the cross-border circle in recent times.

" In June, the shipping cost of ordinary vessels will increase by another 1,000 US dollars . The price of ordinary vessels is expected to increase by about 0.5 yuan again . There is no trick to save money. It all depends on early delivery . " A freight forwarder said helplessly that it is difficult to find a container in the market. It is a very tense time now . This situation will last at least until June .

According to Hapag-Lloyd's announcement two days ago, PSS will be levied on all containerized cargo from East Asia to North America from June 1. From June 1 to June 14, the PSS is US$480 for small containers and US$600 for large containers; from June 15, the PSS is US$1,000 for small containers and US$2,000 for large containers... Although June has not yet arrived, the price increase letter has already "killed" it. Many leading companies including Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, CMA CGM, etc. have issued a new round of price increase notices. In addition to the continued increase in freight rates on routes such as Asia-Europe and the United States , freight rates from Asia to Australia, New Zealand, West Africa, South Africa, South America and Southeast Asia are also being pushed up. It seems that this wave of shipping crisis of lack of ships and cabins has spilled over to other routes.

Industry insiders predict that this wave of freight rate increases is far from over. After June , shipping companies may once again issue price increase notices, and the spot shipping prices from the Far East to the West Coast of the United States may even exceed the level at the beginning of this year, when the Red Sea crisis was at its worst.

Many industry insiders said in detail that May is the period for Europe and the United States to replenish their inventories. It is normal for "increased demand for container transportation and congestion at some ports." However, this year's shipping market has changed too much. A large number of merchants are afraid that freight rates will continue to rise, so they ship goods early, pushing the peak season of the European container shipping market from the traditional July to May, further raising shipping prices. In short, people have a certain panic mentality, causing fluctuations in the shipping market. In addition, due to the detour of ships in the Red Sea crisis , the turnover rate of containers has dropped, and a large number of containers are in transit, which has also led to rising container prices .

Driven by various factors, the overall shipping price has risen sharply. If the problem cannot be solved in the short term, high freight rates may continue into the third quarter.

In fact, apart from sea shipping, all channels in Europe have not been very peaceful recently .

As for China-Europe trains , prices have been rising sharply since May , with prices on European routes of various train companies rising by 10%-20% , with some routes quoting prices above US$9,000 . The logistics time of Qatar Airways has also been extended, and even the price of air delivery is rising.

Faced with the sudden increase in container freight rates , Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen was shocked: "To be honest, I am also surprised by the increase in freight rates. We have seen very strong demand in the past few weeks, but we can only guess what the reason is. "

This statement has obviously been criticized by a large number of freight forwarders. In their view, whoever is the boss sets the price. In recent years, shipping companies have gone too far. The source of the out-of-control freight rates is actually shipping companies taking advantage of the situation. Shipping companies have made a lot of money, but freight forwarders have not made any money. When the shipping market is overheated, ordinary freight forwarders are miserable; and when the market is too cold, it is still the same. In fact, if the freight forwarding industry wants to develop healthily, it must ensure that all people in the chain earn their own reasonable profits. The current situation does not meet the standard.

"With the current high shipping prices, freight forwarders have a harder time." A freight forwarder told the editor that the higher the freight rates, the more chaotic the market is. Now peers are engaging in price wars more frequently, and the super-strict customs clearance in Hungary and Poland is bound to expose some hidden dangers. It is foreseeable that before long, there will be a new round of news similar to "freight forwarders running away"...