Since this week, congestion at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California, the busiest ports in the United States, has intensified. Data from the “Southern California Maritime Exchange” shows that as of Monday, the number of container ships waiting to enter the port outside the above two ports has increased. There were as many as 97 ships, which was unprecedented in history. Some organizations estimate that if all the containers loaded on waiting ships were connected end to end, the total length would reach about 2,200 kilometers, which is equivalent to half the distance from the east coast to the west coast of the United States. So what are the impacts of congestion of this magnitude? How long will it probably last?
The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, located in Southern California, are gateway ports connecting Asia and the United States shipping routes. Last year, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled a total of 8.8 million import containers, accounting for 40% of the total annual import containers in the United States.
However, affected by factors such as the imbalance of supply and demand in the global shipping industry and weak port operating capabilities, congestion at Southern California ports continues and Keep getting worse. Currently, the two ports have a backlog of 97 cargo ships, twice that of the same period in August; the average entry time has been extended from 6.2 days in mid-August to the current 8.7 days. Shipping and logistics giant Maersk expects severe congestion at major cargo ports around the world to continue at least until the end of this year.
Yan Ci, President of Maersk (China) Co., Ltd.: The tension in the maritime supply chain is not only reflected in the ports, but also related to land transportation. For example, there is insufficient rail capacity from the port to the inland and insufficient freight trucks. Taken together, the global shipping and logistics market will remain tense at least until the end of this year.
The latest data from the “Drewry World Container Index” on the 23rd showed that the freight rate for shipping a 40-foot standard container from Shanghai to Los Angeles this week was 10,377 The US dollar is equivalent to nearly 67,000 yuan, an increase of 329% over the same period last year. Industry insiders pointed out that the recent surge in “spot freight rates” does not reflect the full picture of the global shipping industry.
The “long-term contract freight rate”, which accounts for a larger proportion of shipping industry orders, does not fluctuate much and has a relatively small impact on the downstream of the supply chain. Small. Maersk’s latest quarterly report shows that the average freight rate for each 40-foot container on its east-west route in the second quarter of this year was US$3,148, a year-on-year increase of 67.5%. The freight level and increase are significantly lower than spot freight rates.
However, the surge in spot freight will still cause price increase pressure. As the autumn and winter shopping seasons approach, a large number of merchants in the United States have begun to place orders to stock up in advance, putting further pressure on the freight routes from Asia to the United States. Due to rising freight costs, some U.S. retailers are planning to raise prices, which will increase the cost for U.S. consumers during the holidays at the end of this year. </p
