In recent months, due to the uneven global economic recovery, the sharp resurgence of the epidemic in many parts of the world, and the arrival of traditional peak transportation seasons such as Christmas and New Year, many ports in Europe and the United States have experienced congestion, while many domestic ports are extremely short of containers.
“We used to pay US$300 for a container to Indonesia, but now it has increased to more than US$2,000, an increase of six to seven times.”
General Manager of Yiwu Tianpeng International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. Lou Lei has been a little troubled recently. He told reporters that due to the severe shortage of containers and shipping space, the cost of shipping has “increased” in the past month. Facing the booming export market, many exporters have to choose to wait and see.
“The total value of some containers may be only 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, and the freight has risen to tens of thousands of yuan, directly increasing the cost by 30%!” Lou Lei said frankly that the recent demand in overseas markets has been indeed There have been rebounds of varying magnitudes, but due to high costs and difficulty in finding shipping spaces and containers, no shipping company has come yet after booking a month in advance. As a result, their company’s business volume has been suppressed. Business that they thought would increase with the market , but actually dropped by about 30% year-on-year.
Because of Christmas, this time has always been the peak export season every year, but in Lou Lei’s words, the booking volume is more than before, but there are more ineffective phone calls. Export volumes have not increased accordingly.
Textile business profits are diluted again
Ports in many countries are congested and paralyzed, surcharges are soaring, and importers may abandon goods.
The recent increase in shipping prices and the difficulty in shipping containers are both tiring things for foreign traders.
In recent months, due to the uneven global economic recovery, the sharp resurgence of the epidemic in many parts of the world, and the arrival of traditional peak transportation seasons such as Christmas and New Year, many ports in Europe and the United States have experienced congestion, and many domestic ports have experienced extreme container shortages. lack.
Under such circumstances, many large shipping companies have begun to impose congestion surcharges, peak season surcharges, shortage fees and other surcharges. In large ports such as Shanghai, Ningbo, and Lianyungang, due to the extreme shortage of containers, shipping capacity has been greatly affected, resulting in delays in ship berthing operations and delayed exports of some goods.
At present, major ports such as Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai are short of empty containers, and freight forwarders and shippers are experiencing high freight rates of 4,000 in South America, 5,000 in the East, and 1,000 in Southeast Asia. Moreover, the current competition for cabins is like a shopping flash sale. If you are slow, you can’t grab it. Even if you pay more, you may not be able to reserve a locker. Many foreign trade people said that this year’s shipping has never been so crazy.
The situation at foreign ports is not optimistic either. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in the United States have been paralyzed. Some institutions predict that the congestion at U.S. ports will continue into the first quarter of 2021 because cargo demand remains high.
Bigger and more delays have just begun
It is reported that the flood of containers in the UK has spread from the country’s ports and distribution centers to towns and villages. Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container port, is currently experiencing severe congestion, with a large number of containers piling up, and the port once refused to allow empty containers to arrive. Due to severe congestion in major ports, Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM, including New Zealand, Spain and Guinea, plan to impose port congestion surcharges.
A foreign trade salesman said: “Recently, sea freight has increased a lot. We will install cabinets soon at the end of the month. There is a constant shortage of cabinets. We The customer was very anxious. He told us that if we cannot deliver the goods on time at the end of the month, we will have to switch to air freight. The price of air freight is really unbearable.”
Generally speaking, sea freight is chosen because the cost of air freight is too high. , a textile worker said: “Last year, because we couldn’t catch up with the shipping date, we used air freight, which cost us an extra 200,000 yuan. If we did it a few more times, we would probably have wiped out all the profits for that year.”
Textile companies have always operated on a low profit basis. A profit of 10%-15% is already very good. Once shipments cannot be made smoothly due to a shortage of cabinets, the price of air freight is several times that of sea freight, and it may take several orders later. Make up for the loss on this order.
It is indeed miserable to do foreign trade this year. In the first half of the year, foreign trade almost stagnated. In the second half of the year, foreign trade orders began to pick up. However, there were a series of shortages of cabinets, rising freight costs, etc., which caused profits to be repeatedly diluted.
In addition to the skyrocketing freight charges, the recent appreciation of the RMB has also caused headaches for textile people. According to a trader, “Our customers are foreign trade companies that do business directly with American customers. For those who export clothing, the order The volume is also relatively large. It was originally estimated that the profit would be about 4 million, but due to the exchange rate, it was only about 2 million, and half of the profit was eaten up by the exchange rate.” But if the foreign exchange is settled now, foreign trade people will also be very heartbroken. After all, the exchange rate is only 6.5 now. At the beginning of the year, the exchange rate was 7.2. How can you be so determined to settle foreign exchange? “Now the settlement of foreign exchange will indeed…�A lot, but there are only 2 months left before the end of the year. No matter what the exchange rate is, we will have to settle the bill. There are too many places to use money at the end of the year. “A foreign trade person said helplessly.
For textile foreign traders, please pay attention to recent shipments! Ports in many countries are congested and paralyzed, surcharges are soaring, and importers may abandon goods. At the same time, The recent exchange rate issue is very worrying!
But in the long run, the rebound in foreign trade orders and the appreciation of the RMB also represent the continuous improvement of China’s strength. At least in the textile industry, other countries that want to replace China have already It’s getting harder</p
