, with the beginning of the golden week holiday, the freight rate of the US-West route has been lower than US $2,000. Last Friday, in order to reserve the cargo load in the first half of October, the shipping alliance has already introduced a short-term preferential price of US $1950 per large box. However, the European route has been hit by strikes at two major British ports, implicating alternative ports such as Rotterdam and Hamburg. The port congestion is serious, causing the ship cabin to burst, the freight rates already quoted by the shipping company began to charge an additional $300-500 for the purchase of the cabin.
Large freight forwarding company head pointed out that the US-West route market situation is quite chaotic, there have been shipping companies to direct passengers per large box (40-foot container) of 1700 US dollars, the spot market major leagues sold 1950 US dollars, non-union about 1800-1900 US dollars.
European routes are just the opposite. Before the November holiday, a shipping company, in order to reserve the cargo load in the first half of October, introduced a freight rate of less than 5,000 US dollars per large box. As a result, it was found that some voyages had already begun to explode. The quoted freight rate had to be based on the lack of space and proposed a fare increase of 300 to 500 US dollars to buy the cabin fee.
It is worth noting that the global economic outlook is still sluggish. Europe is affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the energy crisis, and inflation remains high; the CPI of the United States in August rose 8.3 year-on-year, which has been higher than 8% for six consecutive months. The logistics manager of a medium-sized retailer said it was signing a three-month contract with a freight rate lower than the long-term agreement but higher than the spot freight rate. In addition, some shipping companies, with ship utilization rates below 80 per cent, are negotiating to accept lower freight rates to increase ship loading rates.
with the current decline in freight rates, the U. S.-West route will be the first to challenge the break-even point (referred to as the loss point), after the industry believes that $2000 per box is the shipping company can continue to make a profit balance line. However, the head of a large freight forwarding company pointed out that in the absence of port congestion, the loss parity of the large shipping company's US-West route is US $1500. Regarding the statement of this large freight forwarding company, a senior general manager of a shipping company said that there are indeed shipping companies whose cost price per large container on the US-West route is between US $1300 and US $1500, mainly depending on the size of the ship's capacity, whether desulfurizers are installed, whether the port is plugged, whether the oil price is high, the choice of affiliated ports along the way, and the efficiency of cost control are all influencing factors.
the cost factors vary greatly among liner companies, it is clear that the unit transportation cost of a 12000TEU vessel type of alliance shipping company is much lower than that of a 3000TEU small vessel newly added to the U.S. line due to the outbreak. Industry insiders generally believe that the current situation shows that the operating costs of shipping companies have indeed increased, about hundreds of dollars per large box. The continued sharp decline in freight rates and the increase in operating costs for the new line of small shipping companies can be said to be more pressure, may be the first to enter the price war, reduce shifts or completely withdraw from the route.
At present, the British port of Felixstow is carrying out a second round of strikes, which will only end on the 5th of this month, while the port of Liverpool, which just ended a two-week strike last week, announced a second round of strikes on October 11-17. The container volume of these two ports accounts for about 60% of the total British container import and export volume, which has a considerable impact. As a result, Rotterdam and Hamburg, as alternative ports, waiting time from 7 days to 12-14 days.
Freight forwarding companies and shipping companies believe that European and American inventory digestion has been quite a long time, coupled with the devaluation of Asian currencies, the second half of October European and American line cargo volume is expected to pick up, although the estimated growth rate is not high, but help market freight stability or even a slight rebound, whether the off-season is not weak, it is estimated that the 11 long holiday after the end of a week, you can see the clue.
Source: Maritime Service Network