Category: China

Spot market shippers have seen continued rate spikes this week and the shipping lines are preparing for further rate elevation, as excess demand leads to cargo-rolling increases at many origin and transhipment ports. Shippers using the spot market for consignments from Asia to Euro... Read more

China's exports have surged, driven by post-lockdown demand from the US and Europe, while factory gate pricing has risen at the steepest rate for more than three years. China's economy grew 18.3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020, in its biggest GDP jump si... Read more

Finding an empty container in Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian or any other major Chinese gateway port, is becoming a major problem, yet again, as Asian container availability is tightening, and purchase and rental costs are soaring, and equipment will become even scarcer as demand builds through May in... Read more

Our sea freight ops team continue to perform in a very challenging global ocean freight environment and with global supply chains likely to be under pressure for the rest of the year, they will continue to deliver the highest possible levels of service and performance available with all options b... Read more

There has been only one story in town for the last week! Even though the Ever Given has been re-floated and the Suez Canal is working to clear the backlog of waiting vessels, a huge amount of uncertainty remains and we should still expect a shortage of containers at many origins, vessel diversion... Read more

China is now the EU's biggest trading partner, overtaking the US, as volumes of goods grew in both directions, propelled by sustained pandemic demand. As business with Europe's major partners fell due to the COVID-19 pandemic, trade with China (import and export) was worth €586bn last year, ... Read more

The sustained threat of US tariffs through 2019 meant that supply chains were diverted away from China to factories in other regional economies. As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in January 2020, factories closed, inventories fell and supply chains around the world began to stall. With manufa... Read more

The shortage of container ships and record-breaking freight rates has prompted some carriers to come up with new and creative alternatives. The continued demand for sea freight space, that started last May, and the ensuing volume crisis, caused by a shortage of vessel availability and empty co... Read more

The economic turmoil triggered by the continuing pandemic, has disrupted global container shipping through 2020, with port congestion battering the shipping lines’ schedules and wiping out reliability. Port congestion began in Asia, as the first Coronavirus waves passed last May and factorie... Read more

Shanghai and Yantian port disruption, refusal of heavy weight containers onto quay and the serious issue of drivers returning home ahead of CNY, due to Government enforced covid related travel restrictions are bad enough, and now the signs are the shipping lines will do everything possible to mai... Read more

2M’s Maersk and MSC will cancel four sailings from Asia during Chinese New Year, while THE Alliance will skip three Asia–Mediterranean services in late March and early April, in an effort to restore schedule integrity. The lines are insistent that the measures are necessary, with Maersk sa... Read more

Massive and continuing post-lockdown consumer demand has resulted in a lack of available space on vessels, shortage of empty shipping containers in Asia and congestion at destination ports, driving freight rates to levels never before experienced. Taking issues that have perplexed shippers sin... Read more