From the outbreak of the pandemic to the first half of this year, international sea freight rates have been soaring, and the shortage of containers has become apparent. Finding an available container has become one of the biggest challenges faced by logistics companies for a long time. "In the past few months, as the overall global shipping costs have continued to decline, things have turned to the other extreme. Now almost all major ports have stored a large number of empty containers." A Chinese logistics company recently said during the communication with FreshPlaza.
He said, "The reason for the current situation is that the supply of containers exceeds demand. In the early stage, when there was an obvious shortage of containers, major shipping companies began to manufacture containers in large quantities. Later, as demand shrinks and more and more containers are put on the market, a lot of empty containers are piling up. This not only caused losses to shipping companies but also disrupted the rational deployment and operation of the global container market to a certain extent."
Recently, China officially announced the cancellation of a series of measures related to pandemic control. This is undoubtedly beneficial for the logistics industry. Not only will vehicles and transport personnel be able to flow more freely, but cargo can also be dispatched according to the established plan.
Nevertheless, according to him, from a global perspective, it will take a long time for logistics operations to return to the levels before the pandemic. "At present, the global market is still in the long recovery period after the outbreak, and there are still many uncertainties in international trade. It is difficult to make forecasts for the outlook, but the good news is that the situation has fundamentally changed compared to a year ago."