Lack of space, lack of boxes, and shipping costs skyrocketing! Many companies issued price increase letters
Recently, during a survey of key foreign trade provinces and cities, reporters found that, affected by multiple factors such as continued tensions in the Red Sea and a rebound in global foreign trade, foreign trade export shipping prices have shown an upward trend. What is the actual situation?
When the reporter came to Yiwu Port, the staff told the reporter that the increase in shipping prices caught some traders off guard and had to delay shipments.
Zeng Xibao, manager of a logistics company in Zhejiang: It started in early April, and the warehouse is now a bit full. Customers may adjust some shipping plans based on the freight price. If the freight price is too high, it will be postponed later.
Sea freight continues to rise, posing challenges to the export of small, medium and micro foreign trade companies.
Wu Xiaoming, the person in charge of a sports goods company in Yiwu, Zhejiang: Some people produce goods, such as shipping on the 10th, but if the container cannot be obtained on the 10th, the delay may be ten days or even half a month. The backlog of costs this year is about one to two million yuan.
Nowadays, the shortage of containers and insufficient transportation capacity are still intensifying. Many foreign trade customers have booked space until mid-June, and it is "hard to find a cabin" on some routes.
It is understood that many shipping companies have issued price increase letters and have raised the rates on major routes. Today, the freight rates on routes from Asia to Latin America have soared from more than 2,000 US dollars per 40-foot box to 9,000 to 9,000 to some. At US$10,000, the freight charges on routes such as Europe and North America have almost doubled.
Yuan Qian, associate researcher at the Institute of Foreign Economics of the China Academy of Macroeconomics: Since 2024, demand in Europe and the United States has improved marginally, and my country's foreign trade import and export situation has been good, providing basic support for rising shipping demand and rising shipping prices.
Foreign trade companies proactively respond to rising shipping costs with changes
Experts said that fluctuations in shipping prices have brought cost and timeliness challenges to foreign trade entities' shipments, but as the cycle passes, prices will fall back and will not have a major impact on my country's foreign trade macroeconomics. In the face of rising sea freight, foreign trade companies are also adapting accordingly.
The person in charge of a foreign trade company in Ningbo told reporters that orders in the European and Middle Eastern markets have continued to increase recently, and the order volume has increased by about 50% compared with the same period last year. However, due to the continued rise in shipping prices and the inability to book space, the company currently has 4 containers of goods delayed, with the latest being delayed by nearly a month than originally scheduled.
Ding Yandong, general manager of a door and window accessories Co., Ltd. in Ningbo, Zhejiang: Now the factory entrance is full of goods. I also bought containers to store some goods that are afraid of getting wet or exposed to the sun.
Ding Yandong did some calculations for reporters. The freight for a 40-foot container originally shipped to Saudi Arabia was around US$3,500, but now it has risen to US$5,500 to US$6,500. Trying to find ways to cope with the rising sea freight, in addition to freeing up space to stack the backlog of goods, he also suggested that customers use air freight and China-Europe freight trains, or use more economical transportation methods such as high containers to solve the problem.
When reporters interviewed cross-border logistics companies and international freight forwarding companies, they found that in order to ensure timeliness, some foreign trade companies began shipping orders for the second half of the year in May and June.
Tang Qianjia, vice president of a supply chain company in Shenzhen, Guangdong: We estimate that this situation will last two or three months. July and August are the peak seasons for traditional shipments, and August and September are the peak seasons for e-commerce. It is estimated that this year’s peak season will last for a relatively long time.
