Shipping: Empty containers are moving into Chinese ports
Two years after container shortage*, partly responsible for rising freight rates, many Chinese ports see their docks saturated with « boxes » empty.
Since the last quarter of 2022, empty container flows returning to Chinese ports are higher than full container departures. This is evidenced by the accumulation of the latter in the major ports of China such as Ningbo or Shanghai. The volume « boxes » empty would already represent6% of the world stock.
Global demand for dungeon (which caused freight rates to collapse by almost 90% in one year) and recent overproduction of containers to address the 2020 shortage* would be the main reasons for this situation.
Indeed, moreseven million new containers, mostly manufactured in China, have recently appeared (three times more than in a classic year), orders having been placed to meet the high demand. Since then, other factors have come into play and have changed the situation: the war in Ukraine, global inflation and the decline in consumer purchasing power in most countries of the world, the overstocking by buyers following the Covid crisis, and thestop and goChinese factories due to government policy to stop the pandemic.
To go further...
- Sales Administration (SDA) Subcontracting Export
- Import/export flow management (air & maritime)
- Diagnosis of international logistics flows
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Source(s): The Echoes
Editor(s): F. SUNDAC