Reminder: The Container Freight Rates Of Asia-Europe Routes Have Soared Soaring By 10 Times!

On May 17, Platts Container Rate 1 showed that the container freight rate from North Asia to the Nordic continent soared to USD 12,000/FEU, an increase of USD 1,500/FEU from the previous week, and USD 1,300/FEU estimated on this route one year ago. FEU has increased almost tenfold.

The latest increase in freight rates comes at a time when demand on major global routes continues to exceed supply. Compared with the beginning of the epidemic, the number of empty containers in circulation in the shipping industry has dropped sharply. This is mainly because once the containers are unloaded from the ship, due to the shortage of dock workers, poor inland transportation and the epidemic, the cost of returning the containers to the port Time has greatly increased.

The whole world feels this. Some containers can take 4 weeks to return to the port after unloading, but at the beginning of 2020, it only takes about 7 to 10 days.

Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in major hubs around the world, port delays have greatly reduced the level of support staffing. The result is a major delay in logistics.

For example, in the first quarter of 2021, delays occurred offshore California, with nearly 40 container ships waiting in line outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. A large backlog of containers puts further pressure on the already fragile supply chain.

On the European trade channel, the closure of the Suez Canal in March caused major bottlenecks in European ports. Although the port was able to clear some of the backlog of cargo during the calm period when the container ships had not yet arrived, a large number of ships arrived at the port all at once in April, which caused the port's waiting time to continue to prolong and aggravated the already tense market situation.

In all this, the carrier has been hit hard, because the delay means that the number of containers arriving at the port within the planned window has been greatly reduced.