The surge in global shipping prices that began in July last year has continued to this day and has not yet ended, and even continues to rise. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) has risen from 1374 at the beginning of the year to the latest 4163, which has more than doubled.

In the past year, global shipping prices have generally risen by about 7 times, and some popular routes have risen even more. While high shipping prices have disrupted the global supply chain, they have also pushed up global inflation.

Why this round of shipping prices have risen so much?

1.Foreign demand for various goods has been high.

2.The covid-19 has severely disrupted the production order in many countries, and many products have to be exported from China. However, the supply of China’s port throughput and shipping capacity is rigid in the short term, and containers are not enough.

In the first half of the year, my country’s port foreign trade cargo throughput increased by 9.2% year-on-year, while the total foreign trade import and export value increased by 27.1% year-on-year. The increase in imports and exports was much greater than the port cargo throughput, indicating that the port has been overloaded. In addition, exports have increased, but imports have not increased in the same proportion. There are fewer ships returning, and there are many goods that need to be exported in China. Naturally, freight rates have risen. Therefore, many Chinese ports are now in a state of “hard to find a box”.

3. As the epidemic situation in European and American import markets has not been well controlled, their blockade measures have resulted in a backlog of cargo in ports and serious port blockage. The unloading of foreign terminals is also slow, and the turnover rate is greatly reduced. The arrival of the Christmas shopping season and labor shortages have also caused serious congestion in US ports.

4. Epidemic prevention also increases shipping costs. Crew members and agents are quarantined for 14 days, which also increases shipping costs.

5. Artificial hype is also a factor.

Therefore, the exporters are unable to grab and book the space on the one hand, and on the other hand, the goods are piled up in the warehouse.

Now, many major shipping companies around the world have announced a policy of no increase in freight rates, which has certain benefits for the stability of shipping prices at this stage, but the imbalance between supply and demand in consolidation is estimated to continue for some time.

When will the shipping price come down? It is estimated to wait until the global epidemic stabilizes and overseas production capacity is fully restored.

At the same time, please rest assured that all CAMEL CNC customers, in this situation, we still insist on providing customers with the best service and support.