06 Nov Sea freights soaring and containers in heavy shortage

Container rates from China to the US have soared in recent months, driven by the US’ high demand to restock amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming holiday season and China’s pick-up in foreign trade in the fourth quarter.

Cost of a 20’ ft container jumped 20 percent from October to $2,800 in early of November.  Rates now stand 100 per cent higher than the same period in 2019.

The sharp rise has mainly been driven by high demand on China-North America routes, which led to a container shortage.

In recent weeks, more clients have encountered container shortages, which delayed the shipments.

Some book a shipping space but can not find containers, and shipping rates soared in recent months as export orders boomed.

The total shipping cost from China to the US West Coast is over 100 percent higher than the same period last year, while costs to the East Coast have almost tripled

Ships are not available at present. One would be lucky to be able to book a space as early as mid-November, the pandemic in the US has led to low work efficiency at ports, which prolonged the entire shipping process.

Demand for sea shipping has rebounded as lock downs ease and the US seeks to prepare for the pandemic to worsen in the winter, along with high demand for Chinese goods in the holiday season.

The soaring sea freights and container shortage have affected our export a lot. Some of our dehydrated vegetables are very bulk. One 40’ft container can only load 5 tons of dried chive. So the average cost rise is rather high.

The situation may not be released until the end of this year.