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Container Shipping Rates

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FaaF said:
Finally, some bad news for the shipping of containers from China. A positive Covid case in Ningbo resulting in the third largest container port in the world turning away ships....
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Could be good news for Yantian port

Yantian suffered badly with capacity because of Covid and ships avoided it....now if Ningbo is closed they may find some ships with more capacity heading to Yantian (which is normally one of the last ports visited by containerships before heading out of China)

Bad news for some....good news for others !
 
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I suspect we may see additional congestion charges out of Shanghai as many containers are now being rerouted there.
 
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How are we all getting on for August and September? Seems no notable increase for September but no further rises either.

Coming into the Christmas restock period now though.
 
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I think judging by what I keep reading in the news we are going to be hearing from a lot of business's struggling to get their stock in for the peak season, I just hope they are wrong
 
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FaaF said:
How are we all getting on for August and September? Seems no notable increase for September but no further rises either.

Coming into the Christmas restock period now though.
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I've got a 20ft leaving (hopefully) this week. $10,500 Xingang to Liverpool.
 
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WaveJumper said:
I think judging by what I keep reading in the news we are going to be hearing from a lot of business's struggling to get their stock in for the peak season, I just hope they are wrong
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Also consider the shortage of HGV drivers! Our courier has just introduced a carriage levy of 6.61% ''to retain our existing professional drivers as well as attracting new team members by offering substantial salary increases, sign-on bonuses and retention payments to secure drivers, with some payments as high as £5,000''.
 
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While it has caused other issues (cash flow and lack of storage space) we've been able to get containers out with not too many problems. And when you factor in currency movements that has helped offset some of the increased container costs.

We've now got enough stock to get us through the next few months. Biggest problem has been cancelled deliveries from port to warehouse due to driver shortages.
 
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My forwarder is now quoting $10K for 20’ containers to Felixstowe, still on par which everyone else or are you seeing rates coming down at all?
 
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samuel5 said:
My forwarder is now quoting $10K for 20’ containers to Felixstowe, still on par which everyone else or are you seeing rates coming down at all?
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I've got a 20ft on the water at this moment. Cost me $10,500.

The problem now is I can only track it to a port in Portugal and there is no info on when it will be forwarded on to UK
 
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OMGVape said:
I've got a 20ft on the water at this moment. Cost me $10,500.

The problem now is I can only track it to a port in Portugal and there is no info on when it will be forwarded on to UK
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PM me the boat and I will ask a mate to dig a little on it.
 
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We're being quoted $11k on 20' and $18k on 40/40HC (China to UK). Seafreight only. Is anyone seeing much better without any super preferential rate or high volume?

A Chinese supplier has claimed they are starting to see rates reduce significantly, but we're certainly not seeing it in the quotations we're receiving.
 
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I'd say rates have stabilised, i.e not got worst or improved. If you're not getting hit with emergency recovery surcharges on those quoted rates, and I can't believe I'm saying this, they aren't too bad.
 
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Red Wood said:
I can't believe I'm saying this, they aren't too bad.
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If it's small items (say 10,000 pcs per 40ft) it's manageable. However, if it's larger items (say 50 pcs per 40ft) I can't see how that's viable. (Depending on the value of each product)

I understand that it's an even playing field, but there's only so much you can increase your prices.

Maersk revenue this year has increased by nearly 5 times due to increased shipping rates, so as they've had a taste for customers 'willing' to pay current rates, I can't see prices coming down anytime soon . . . . . . unless governments act. This year Maersk will report their largest profit figures in their history.

As a result of ocean freight costs, this is having a knock on effect on air cargo, with increased prices as well as queuing, due to vastly increased demand.

You need the stock, but can't afford to pay/digest the shipping rates.

What do you do?

Catch 22.
 
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Red Wood said:
Nail on head.

We can fit 600 products In a 20ft. The cost of each product is currently around £60 excluding freight charges, safe to say our landed cost has now gone to the moon.
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So roughly £12 added to your item landed price?
 
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Time to invest in UK manufacturers for many items, but naturally the eBay / amazon guys don't buy enough stock to make it viable, but computer controlled machinery does mean that many small runs can be made on quite a few types of modern machine's. maybe just a new era for us all
 
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Chris Ashdown said:
Time to invest in UK manufacturers for many items, but naturally the eBay / amazon guys don't buy enough stock to make it viable, but computer controlled machinery does mean that many small runs can be made on quite a few types of modern machine's. maybe just a new era for us all
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It'll either happen as you mention or it won't. Wouldn't bet on it either way at present. Bringing manufacturers back to the UK would require a gargantuan shift in the prices consumers are able and willing to pay.
 
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Red Wood said:
Bringing manufacturers back to the UK would require a gargantuan shift in the prices consumers are able and willing to pay.
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For some items yes, for others not so much. We have already bought some components back to being made in the UK, Mainly high commodity metalwork with little labour input. We re in the process of bringing others back too.
 
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Chris Ashdown said:
Time to invest in UK manufacturers for many items, but naturally the eBay / amazon guys don't buy enough stock to make it viable, but computer controlled machinery does mean that many small runs can be made on quite a few types of modern machine's. maybe just a new era for us all
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I agree that people need to try and work towards this, but a few years ago we actually tried.

We agreed prices based on MOQ's of 1,000 pieces per style colour with a factory in Scotland. We were paying far more than we would buying from the far east, but I wanted to support British business and benefit from shorter lead times. End result? Despite being chased on a weekly basis, they delivered 12 weeks late. To make matters worse they effectively said if you don't like it, jog on.

Now I'm sure that's not indicative of all factories in the UK, but if that's how they behave then both them and us are going to struggle.

On a more positive note I went to a made in Britain exhibition last year and it's refreshing to see that there are potentially some green shoots in the British manufacturing base. (Within the rag trade anyway. We'll continue to monitor it and if there is any chance at all, we'll move production back to the UK.
 
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All of this is going to translate into huge price rises for consumers (and shortages of stock).

We don't need to bring anything out of China until Q2 next year, which is good in terms of stock but bad in terms of cash flow - though if anything having the stock on hand will enable us to push sales more aggressively.

But balancing supply chain logistics at the moment is almost impossible given everything that is going on. I think most businesses are either short of stock or short of cash flow!
 
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anyone got a container rate recently?
I've had our production pushed back 40 days, is there a silver lining that the container Shenzhen ->UK rates have some more time to sort themselves out
 
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Mister B said:
On a more positive note I went to a made in Britain exhibition last year and it's refreshing to see that there are potentially some green shoots in the British manufacturing base. (Within the rag trade anyway. We'll continue to monitor it and if there is any chance at all, we'll move production back to the UK.
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It's starting to get better but a lot of British manufacturers still rely on overseas materials and equipment, especially at the lower/mass produced end of the market.

We have to import some of our materials, as they're made from glass. Nobody in the EU makes them, at least not at any great scale. We pay £0.80 per unit for them but there's no equivalent here. There are people who make premium quality versions, but they're about £5 per unit at least and we would have to order tens of thousands, because nobody else is buying them yet. Either the cost price comes down or the retail price of the finished product goes up, allowing for more expensive materials.
 
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Latest rate quoted today for a 20':

Carrier: OOCL – USD 9750
POL: Ningbo
POD: Southampton

How does that compare with other recent rates from your good selves?
Just checking our forwarder is not taking advantage of the situation?
 
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Hi

mine is holding out quoting till I can give a goods ready date. I guess its changing too fast to be worth quoting ahead of time
 
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MY OFFICE IN CHINA said:
Maersk revenue this year has increased by nearly 5 times due to increased shipping rates, so as they've had a taste for customers 'willing' to pay current rates, I can't see prices coming down anytime soon . . . . . . unless governments act. This year Maersk will report their largest profit figures in their history.
Catch 22.
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Good point. Why to decrease the prices when the customers are paying them and even higher.
 
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My latest 20ft docks next week. Already accepted the high ocean shipping but now concerned about the storage cost of having the container sat in a port for a long time.
 
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There's a conspiracy going on among the shipping lines to keep ocean freight costs up. They intentionally leave unloaded/empty containers at the destination port creating a shortage of containers in Asia (mainly China) for loading, hence limiting the amount of containers available and keeping costs high.

Their reasoning . . . . .it's too expensive to ship back an empty container.

Additionally, this is creating a situation where there's no more space in the destination ports in UK (mainly Felixstowe) to unload vessels, due to the empty containers being stored. Some shipping lines have diverted UK bound vessels to Rotterdam (and probably elsewhere).

Just to add fuel to the fire, many factories in China have been ordered (or they will be shot) to reduce manufacturing to 3 days a week.
 
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Wide moat on the industry, but hopefully some enterprising Brit / Yank will spot the opportunity and make a challenger shipping upstart.
 
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Had a call today from our shipping agent, our container is now docking one week late (it was due this coming week). Also was informed that the road haulage will be done 10 days after docking, so port storage fees will apply :-(
 
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