Last month’s Suez Canal “ship jam” incident made many people pay attention to shipping for the first time, although this incident has gradually subsided. , but the recent surge in shipping prices has once again attracted people’s attention, especially foreign trade practitioners.
The sea freight from Asia to Northern Europe increased by 5% in the past week, reaching US$7,852 per 40 feet.
The price quoted for the route from Asia to the US West Coast also rose 4% last week to US$5,375 per 40-foot container, a 251% increase compared with the same period last year.
The quotation from Asia to the East Coast of the United States also increased by 2% last week, reaching US$5,868 per 40-foot container, an increase of 108% compared with the same period last year.
At the same time, the General Administration of Customs has also recently Textile export data for the first quarter were announced: National textile and apparel exports totaled US$65.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44%, and an increase of 15.6% compared with the first quarter of 2019. Through the export volume of more than 60 billion US dollars in textile and apparel in the first quarter, an increase of more than 40%, we can feel the high dependence of the domestic textile market on foreign trade exports. Moreover, the vast majority of our textile and apparel exports are shipped by sea. The recent surge in shipping prices is bound to have a certain impact on our textile and apparel exports.
Europe and the United States have seen repeated epidemics and serious container shortages
When the global epidemic broke out last year, the United States The Port of Long Beach hit an all-time high of more than 750,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in July, which fell slightly to 720,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in August, still an increase of more than 9% from the same period last year. Some of that was diverted to the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, which hit its all-time high of 961,833 TEU in August.
The record number of containers has made these ports overcrowded. Especially since the epidemic has led to the closure of some cities, the terminals lack staff and the flow rate of containers has increased sharply. decline, global shipping has been plunged into a container shortage crisis. The shortage of containers has not eased much after the new year, especially as European countries such as Italy, France, and Germany recently announced martial law and “city closures” again. The ban on travel has made it difficult for the entire city to operate normally, and the terminals are also difficult to operate. Containers cannot enter global circulation at the first time, and many areas are still hard to find a container.
The May Day holiday is approaching, and market orders are increasing
Every time before a holiday, there will be a period of time in the textile market to rush for goods and deliver goods. On the one hand, downstream customers will place their orders in advance due to the upcoming holiday. On the other hand, manufacturers and traders are rushing to ship goods before customers go on holiday, so as to prevent customers from being unable to communicate immediately during the holiday. Increased orders and crowded production are very obvious features before the holidays. Now the time has come to the eve of May Day, and this year’s May Day holiday lasts for five days. All kinds of orders will only appear more concentratedly. The current market has also There were some busy scenes.
The recent opening rate of the printing and dyeing market has ended the Qingming Festival The low after the holidays has begun to gradually climb, and it has now risen from 85% last week to about 87%. The overall warehousing volume has increased significantly. According to a person in charge of a dyeing factory, their daily warehousing volume in March was only about 500,000-600,000 meters, while the factory’s production capacity exceeded 700,000 meters. The orders at that time The quantity cannot meet the requirements of the dyeing factory. However, the volume of warehouses recently has climbed to more than 700,000 meters, which is fully capable of maintaining the factory’s high-load production. Some other busy printing and dyeing factories have even exaggeratedly queued up for more than 15 days.
Gathering together shipments before the holiday may intensify container shipping Nervous
According to a truck driver in the market, he mainly takes various textile orders and puts them into the warehouse. Before the May Day and National Day holidays every year, the market There are a lot of textile orders rushing to Shanghai to be warehoused in Shanghai, and sometimes it takes more than a day to queue up in Shanghai to unload the goods. Due to the long queue time, many drivers were unwilling to take such orders during that period. Recently, some traders said that the orders they are currently making for 50,000 to 60,000 meters of four-sided bombs need to be shipped before May Day. However, the customer’s large sample has not yet been confirmed, and production is very tight. If the goods cannot be shipped before May Day, they may even have to be shipped by air.
This is evident from the activity of the textile market before the holiday and the congestion of the shipping market. However, in the current situation where global shipping prices are rising due to the shortage of containers, the emergence of shipments in Zate will inevitably intensify the tension of global containers, and various freight rates are likely to increase again due to the May Day concentrated shipments.Tune.
Freight is rarely used in the textile trade process Buyers and sellers attach great importance to the fact that if air freight is not involved, this cost is almost negligible. Before 2020, the price of shipping a container to the UK was US$2,500, but now the price is quoted at US$14,000, an increase of more than five times. Now it is difficult for any trader to ignore this part of the cost, especially before the recent May Day holiday, when a large number of orders are shipped together and may push up transportation costs again. Weavers please increase your freight budget in future quotations.
</p