Previously, it was difficult to find a container, freight prices were soaring, and supply chain interruptions were the main problems that made it difficult for many foreign trade companies to export. However, since October, sea freight, which has been rising for 15 consecutive months, has declined for the first time, and Yiwu has also experienced a wave of shipments.
Yiwu, Zhejiang:
Container trucks are queuing up in warehouses and export companies are busy with shipments
Yiwu Port has The warehouse area is 430,000 square meters, and 1/3 of the goods purchased from the Yiwu market are shipped to the world from here. September and October every year are the peak seasons for the shipment of foreign trade orders in Yiwu. In Yiwu Port, trucks loaded with goods shuttle back and forth, creating a busy scene. A truck driver who was waiting to load goods told reporters that he had been queuing here since the night before.
Collection Truck Driver: I have been waiting since last night It takes more than ten hours, because there are many cars here, so if you come early, you will still be late.
Although workers are loading goods non-stop, the warehouse is still full, and new goods are constantly being sent from the factory. The warehouse manager of Kaiya International Freight Forwarding Company told reporters that since the beginning of this year, warehouse shipments have increased dramatically, and warehouses are being filled every week.
Manager of the cross-border logistics division of a freight forwarding company in Yiwu, Zhejiang Zhao Jingyun: It explodes every week. Today it is still empty. If there are usually piles outside the door, I can only put them in cabinets. In the past, express lines to the United States might load a dozen containers a week, but now I might load twenty-five containers a week, and I have to work around the clock to finish loading them. Volume has also increased, perhaps tripling.
Especially during the National Day, freight rates have been adjusted back, and a large amount of previously accumulated shipment demand has been released. Not only that, customers who are waiting and watching have also begun to actively place orders. In Yiwu International Trade City, Wei Shirong, who is in the pet supplies business, has just placed an order.
Wei Shirong, operator of Zhejiang Yiwu International Trade City: From above Since the beginning of this month, the price of our American line has dropped significantly, from more than 30,000 US dollars to more than 20,000 US dollars. The freight has been reduced and the shipping space has been increased. So now customers are beginning to urge us to ship goods to them in time, and now we have more orders than before, so we no longer have to worry about shipping costs.
Loss money if you export!
Sea freight has become the top priority for foreign trade textile orders!
Freight is rarely taken seriously by buyers and sellers in the textile trade process. This cost is almost negligible when air freight is not involved. Before 2020, the price of shipping a container to the UK was US$2,500, but now the price is quoted at US$14,000, an increase of more than five times. Now it is difficult for any trader to ignore this part of the cost. People engaged in textile foreign trade are also suffering from the skyrocketing freight prices. They lamented, “I have never seen such a high price in ten years of working in the industry! This business is out of business!”
“I am almost worried to death. The sea freight for one ship is over 200,000 yuan, which is too high. Moreover, the shipping company has not shipped the goods yet. It keeps saying that it will take two days or two days.” Vinings Textile (Suzhou) ) Co., Ltd. Li Yu (pseudonym) told reporters that the company mainly exports anti-epidemic materials and other textile products to Spain. Since 2020, the order situation has been good and the performance is very impressive.
Li Yu said that the company was not too busy in the first quarter of this year and the gross profit margin was relatively good. However, starting from April, the company became busier. However, due to the surge in sea freight and the appreciation of the RMB As a result, the company’s profits fell by half compared to the same period last year.
In this regard, the above-mentioned industry insiders said that textile export companies faced three major difficulties in the second quarter of this year: rising sea freight, rising exchange rates and continued rise in commodity prices.
“The surge in shipping rates is due to the outbreak of foreign epidemics, especially in India, which has greatly affected the global supply chain. Pushing the supply chain upward will affect the imbalance of global shipping, resulting in The freight rates of domestic ocean routes have soared. However, due to the epidemic, other countries may have many containers piled up at the port and can be shipped quickly, so their ocean freight rates are relatively low.” An industry insider gave an example. The freight for a container has increased from US$5,000 to US$10,000, while the entire container may only be worth US$30,000, with freight accounting for more than a quarter. “This has resulted in the competitiveness of some products with relatively low profit margins compared to other countries. If our products are no longer competitive, there is no need to export them, because we will lose money by exporting.”
At present, it is understood that many foreign trade companies have received news that customers have stopped shipping due to high sea freight, and profits have been squeezed again and again!
Why did the skyrocketing sea freight suddenly turn down?
A foreign trade logistics company in HuizhouWang Kai, a logistics company, said, “Recently, shipping logistics has plummeted, mainly due to power cuts, which has caused factories to be unable to ship goods. The entire market is out of stock, and container prices naturally cannot be speculated.”
In this regard, Zeng Yuanli put forward a different view. He said, “I did a small survey in Cixi and Yuyao a few days ago. Some companies that make conversion plugs and extension cords had a holiday before the National Day. The warehouses could not hold the goods produced before, which cost tens of millions or even There are hundreds of millions of yuan in inventory waiting to be shipped out.”
In addition, Zeng Yuanli said that the decline in sea freight rates also depends on the route. The West American line is falling, but the South Asia line continues to rise. The drop in sea freight rates on the western US line is due to the fact that many ships returned to China during the National Day holiday, resulting in more positions.
On September 26, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on accelerating the construction of new infrastructure in the field of transportation, Sun Wenjian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport and head of the Policy Research Office He said that in response to the rising sea freight and the “hard to find a container” situation, the Ministry of Transport has actively cooperated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to coordinate with my country’s container-making enterprises to increase production and coordinate with liner companies to speed up the return transportation of empty containers. The current monthly container production capacity has increased from the previous 200,000 TEUs to a record high of 500,000 TEUs. “With the release of new container production capacity in my country, the turnover of empty containers has accelerated. According to reports from major liner companies, the shortage of empty containers has been basically alleviated.”
</p
