Affected by the continued strong demand for international container transportation, the global spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the obstruction of overseas logistics supply chains, serious port congestion in some countries, and the Suez Canal congestion, the international container shipping market has an imbalance between supply and demand of shipping capacity, tight container shipping capacity, and shipping logistics supply chains. High prices in multiple links have become a global phenomenon.
However, the 15-month-old rally has begun to retreat since the fourth quarter of last year. Especially in mid-September last year, a large number of factories restricted electricity consumption due to power shortage, coupled with high shipping freight rates forcing foreign trade companies to reduce shipments, the increase in container export volume fell from a high point, and the industry’s anxiety was “hard to find”. Take the lead in easing, and the “difficulty in finding one cabin” also tends to ease.
Most upstream and downstream enterprises in the container industry have made cautiously optimistic expectations for the market this year, judging that the scene of last year will not occur again this year, and will enter a period of adjustment.
The industry will return to rational development. “my country’s international container transportation market will have a historical record ‘ceiling’ in 2021, and it has experienced an extreme situation of surge in orders, soaring prices, and short supply.” Executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Container Industry Association Li Muyuan explained that the so-called “ceiling” phenomenon has not appeared in the past ten years, and it will be difficult to reproduce in the next ten years.
China-Europe freight trains are gradually showing resilience. A few days ago, China’s first China-Europe freight train line, the China-Europe freight train (Chongqing), has exceeded 10,000 trains, which means that China-Europe freight trains have become an important bridge for the development of cooperation between China and Europe, and it also marks the high-quality joint construction of China-Europe freight trains. New progress has been made in the Belt and Road Initiative and ensuring the stability and smoothness of the international supply chain.
The latest data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. shows that from January to July this year, China-Europe trains operated a total of 8,990 trains and sent 869,000 standard containers of goods, an increase of 3% and 4% year-on-year respectively. Among them, 1,517 trains were opened and 149,000 TEUs of goods were sent in July, an increase of 11% and 12% year-on-year respectively, both hitting record highs.
Under the severe impact of the global epidemic, the container industry not only strives to ensure the efficiency of port transportation and expands rail-sea combined transportation, but also actively maintains the stability of the international industrial chain and supply chain through the increasingly mature China-Europe trains.
Post time: Aug-26-2022