29/06/2021
The global shipping industry is currently experiencing a crisis as a result of the shortage of containers, which has led to a significant increase in the cost of shipping as well as delays in receiving purchased goods, especially goods from China, and it is still difficult to predict when this crisis will end because no one He knows for sure when the situation will improve or if it may get worse.
Some of the main reasons that led to the shortage of containers and the rise in global freight rates are due to the following:
1) The international shipping companies have stopped operating more than 50% of container ships for the purpose of reducing administrative and operational expenses because those companies did not expect trade to return to normal within a short period not exceeding months, which led to an increase in the supply of containers available for shipping and a shortage of ships that will transport these containers.
2) Many empty containers were disrupted in American and European ports during the period of closures during the (Covid 19) pandemic, which led to arranging container breakdowns in ports that exceeded the real value of containers, which prompted many shipping companies to get rid of those containers because the malfunctions that resulted in them are more This of course led to a severe shortage of empty containers, which are the main nerve for the operation of container ships.
3) Shipping companies own nearly half of the containers in the world and the rest is owned by companies specialized in renting containers, as the delay rates for new containers rose more than 75% in the second quarter of this year 2021, and this is one of the factors that affected the rise in sea freight wages.
4) The increase in the prices of new containers by more than 100% during this year, and the reason for this is the increase in the demand for purchasing new containers to compensate for the shortage in the global market, as well as the high prices of iron used in the container industry.
The beneficiaries of this growing demand are the Chinese, who dominate the global market for the new container industry.
5)- The preventive measures in transport between countries have also raised the volume of costs, in addition to the intensification of the movement of transport and commercial shipping from China before the start of the so-called Spring Festival in China (a month-long vacation), which led to great pressure on the transport vessels and the adjustment of the situation continues for a long time after this break.
6)- Attempts by the international shipping company to reduce losses as a result of months of downtime also contributed to raising freight and transportation fees.
And finally 7)- Speculation and seizure of reservations by some shipping companies in China by keeping and trading the reservations that they have.
