U.S. Shipping Prices Hit A New 8-Year High! With The Peak Season Coming, Will The Freight Rate Rise?

Recently, the price of shipping containers in the United States continues to rise. The container freight from Shanghai to the basic port on the west coast of the United States has reached the highest level in eight years, double that of the beginning of this year.

A number of freight companies reflect that while freight rates are soaring, booking space has become a major problem.

U.S. shipping prices hit an 8-year high

September is the peak season of the Pacific Ocean shipping line, and the container throughput of many ports has reached a record high in a single month. In this context, U.S. container shipping prices skyrocketed to 8-year highs 。

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According to the data of Shanghai Shipping Exchange, as of September 11, the Shanghai export container freight index of the United States west coast route was at 3813 US dollars, up 55 US dollars per container compared with the freight rate a week ago, and it has doubled compared with the beginning of the year; the freight index of the east coast route of the United States was 4534 US dollars, an increase of 77% compared with the beginning of the year.

Many freight forwarders reflect that the current high freight rates on American routes make it difficult to book space, mainly because shipping companies are unable to meet the sudden increase in shipping demand.

Guo Shaohai, director of strategic development of Guoqiao COSCO ： The market demand is really hot. The corresponding positions of shipping companies are not matched by the market. Slow shipping (refers to slow ships) also has the situation of breaking the contract and dumping boxes. The box rejection rate should reach 13% and 14%, which is very strong.

Cui Zhengrong, deputy general manager of Huanshi Logistics Group ： Because the ship owner's forecast in April was affected by the epidemic situation, the market forecast was pessimistic at that time. The main purpose was to maintain the market freight rate. In the most extreme week, the market may withdraw about 20% of the transport capacity.

Market participants said that freight forwarding companies generally sign contracts with shipping companies in April and may. This year, due to the impact of the epidemic, most shipping companies had pessimistic expectations on the international shipping situation, so they reduced their transportation capacity.

According to the latest monthly report of Shanghai Shipping Exchange on export container transportation market, the market transportation demand in August performed well, Even though some airlines are gradually resuming the supply of capacity, the shortage of space has not been fully alleviated, and the phenomenon of cabin explosion and cargo rejection is frequent in some routes.

Liu Yue, manager of Information Department of Shanghai Shipping Exchange ： The launch of liner transport capacity requires a group of ships with time for capacity layout and route layout. To the United States route, six ships can put in two, but if you want to cast six at a time, there will be no ship behind.

Cross border e-commerce boosts shipping demand and freight rates are expected to be controlled in the future

The rapid growth of sea freight prices in the United States is mainly due to the contradiction between shipping demand and insufficient supply of transport capacity. In the second and third quarters of this year, under the international epidemic situation, cross-border e-commerce business increased significantly. Under the background of domestic epidemic situation being controlled, the export demand of domestic daily necessities and epidemic prevention materials increased significantly.

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In a freight forwarding company in Shanghai, employees are busy. The head of the U.S. airlines told reporters that September has always been the traditional peak season for American routes, and foreign purchases of Thanksgiving and Christmas materials have brought a large number of orders. At the same time, the number of orders from cross-border e-commerce has increased significantly.

Cui Zhengrong, deputy general manager of Huanshi Logistics Group ： We have a lot of bicycle customers here. They are also in the online mode. Through our transportation, they keep telling us to deliver goods quickly. In addition, PPE (personal epidemic prevention materials) is also very large, such as masks, protective clothing, gloves and so on.

Analysts pointed out that, At present, there has been a rush for shipping time and container in the market. Even if idle ships resume operation one after another, it is still difficult to meet the demand.

On the other hand, the freight rates of American routes have risen rapidly, and some shipping companies have adjusted their capacity deployment and transferred ships from other routes to the US routes, which has also led to the rise of freight rates of European, South American and other routes. At present, the ocean alliance has been actively increasing transport capacity, and freight rates are expected to return to a reasonable range in the future.

Yan Wanhai, chief analyst of yanguoyin Logistics ： Later, with the improvement of demand, the capacity of some routes has been increased, that is, the US line. Later, with the normalization of demand, when the whole industry can have a relatively stable expectation of demand, the corresponding transportation capacity will also increase. Therefore, the price of American Airlines is still the peak in peak season. We think that it should fall back to a relatively reasonable level

A freight forwarding company said that it had received a notice from the shipping company on September 15 that the price of containers sent to the West Bank of the United States was planned to rise to 4300 US dollars per container (about 29110 yuan).

In this regard, it was reported that last week, the United States shipping company was collectively interviewed to cancel the plan to increase the price of the flow to the United States on September 15, and the current authorized freight rate was extended to the end of September.