January 06, 2022
Since 2021, China’s foreign trade imports and exports have maintained growth, but the persistently high sea freight prices have brought a lot of pressure on foreign trade companies. They have just dropped from their historical highs not long ago, but with the recovery of production and consumption in Southeast Asia, Now it is heating up again.
Mainly in Vietnam and Thailand, including some ports in Indonesia and Malaysia, the freight rates of these ports have generally risen to more than US$3,000. Before the epidemic, this freight rate may only be at the level of 200 to 300 US dollars. During the epidemic, it reached more than 1,000 US dollars. The highest price was more than 2,000 US dollars around the Spring Festival in 2021. The current price should be the highest point since the epidemic.
The 2022 long-term contracts for European routes have been signed recently. The relevant shipping companies said that in the past, the European routes were all relatively loose contracts. Now the global shipping industry is a seller’s market. Shipping companies have substantially increased the long-term contract price by 2.5 to 5 times. For example, Hapag-Lloyd requires three years for a signing and is very insistent. Maersk does not sign long-term contracts for general customers, and the binding clauses of the new contracts have also been greatly increased!
According to statistics from Alphaliner, a well-known French maritime consulting agency, in the first quarter of this year, among global container shipping companies, Evergreen’s operating profit rate was the highest at 50.1% in the first quarter, 53.2% at Yangming’s in the second quarter, and 53.2% in the third quarter. Rong’s 67.3%. According to industry analysis, the two companies focused on Europe, Asia, and the United States on the three highest freight routes, and the terminals and other businesses have less investment, which has the effect of avoiding the dilution of profits. In addition, the proportion of European routes is not as European. The shipping company is so high, and more cargo can directly enjoy the super-high freight rate in the spot market.
