Recently, some netizens said in a message on the Chinese government website that the sea freight soared and the container detention time was long. "The cost of a small container has also tripled and quadrupled. Not only that, now the containers we send from Qingdao port have to stay in Chinese ports for more than a month. Even if the plan is not delayed, it will take at least 70 days to arrive in Poland".
In response, the Ministry of transport said that due to factors such as labor shortage caused by the spread of overseas epidemic, ports in the United States, Europe and other places have experienced serious congestion since the fourth quarter of 2020.
Among them, Los Angeles port and Long Beach port are the most congested in the United States. At present, there are more than 30 container ships waiting to berth. 85% of the ships need to anchor for at least 8 days to operate. The longest detention time of container goods in the terminal is up to 2 months. Major ports on European routes are also congested.
The Ministry of transport further said that the congestion of foreign ports, the disorder of logistics supply chain and the reduction of efficiency have led to a large area of delay in the schedule of container ships, and the scheduled rate has decreased from more than 70% to about 20%, which has seriously affected the operation efficiency of container ships and exacerbated the contradiction between the transport capacity of container ships and the supply and demand of empty containers.
In addition, the report on China's shipping boom in the first quarter of 2021 previously released by Shanghai International Shipping Research Center also shows that more than 80% of container transportation enterprises believe that the shortage of empty containers will continue for three months or more.
Zhang Yongfeng, director of the International Shipping Research Institute of Shanghai International Shipping Research Center, once told the interface news analysis that the container market has shown an upward trend since the end of last year and is currently at a high level in recent ten years. Zhang Yongfeng analyzed that the rise of containers was mainly driven by the transportation demand for epidemic prevention materials and the home consumption market. At present, the export end of containers in the Chinese market is better than the import end.
The Ministry of transport also said that the current round of tight transport capacity, shortage of empty containers and rising freight rates have become a global problem. Vietnam, India, South Korea and other countries have also seen a rapid rise in freight rates, and the freight rates of some main routes have exceeded those of China.
In the face of this situation, the Ministry of transport pointed out that it will actively coordinate relevant liner companies, optimize the allocation of ship capacity on Chinese routes, increase the capacity of Chinese routes and the return of empty containers, and minimize the impact of large-scale delay in shipping schedule caused by congestion at overseas ports on China's import and export transportation.
In fact, since June 2020, the demand for international container transportation has been released intensively, and the ship capacity has been basically put into the market. However, problems such as rising freight rates, tight containers and port congestion have also continued, which have become a common problem facing the world, and the international trade market has been deeply affected.
In this context, China's ports also feel the pressure of tight transport capacity. At the performance briefing on April 15, Ningbo Port pointed out that among the 214 foreign trade routes in Ningbo port, 28 European routes and 71 ships will be affected by the incident, accounting for 13.08% of the foreign trade routes.
