Investigation on "lack of cabinets" in international logistics

The scheduled rate of important routes in North America is less than 20%, and some imported commodities are less, and the price rises

China's export enterprises and ports are actively taking measures to deal with the dilemma of "lack of containers"

Since last year, the global container freight rate has continued to rise, and the container market quotation of some routes has even soared by more than 10 times. In some ports in China, the problem of "container shortage" is more obvious, and the high logistics cost is affecting the export of some low value-added products; In the North American market, in front of the shelves of products that used to rely mainly on imports, goods have become scarce, prices have risen sharply, and the goods transfer cycle has become very long.

As the world's only major economy that maintained positive growth last year, China's supply chain took the lead in recovering. Since this year, China's foreign trade situation has continued to improve. According to the data released by the General Administration of customs, China's total foreign trade import and export value increased by 22.2% year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year. At the same time, the scene of the shipping market continues to improve, and the container space price of shipping has been rising all the way. At the just concluded Canton Fair and China Import and Export Fair, "lack of cabinets" has become a problem that the participating economists attach great importance to.

In the investigation, the reporter found that some export enterprises in China are actively dealing with the dilemma of "lack of cabinets", such as jointly bearing the storage expenses with the importer. The port side also said that they are actively helping foreign trade enterprises solve the problem of "lack of counters". Relevant people expect that the container space price will decline, but some fluctuations are still not ruled out. It may be around 2023 to return to the normal level in previous years.

Text, picture / Guangzhou Daily all media reporter Wu Wei

Wang Yiming, vice president of China International Economic Exchange Center, told reporters that the "lack of cabinets" has led to the high cost of international shipping logistics, which has greatly increased the import and export cost of enterprises; On the demand side, with the accelerated recovery of other major global economies, the transfer effect of orders will gradually weaken. These are the challenges that China's foreign trade will face in the near future.
North America:

Furniture prices soared and arrived late

Chinese living in North America told our reporter that the prices of some local imported products have increased significantly.

Mr. Wu is a Chinese living in Toronto, Canada. Recently, he has to buy a lot of furniture because of decoration. This makes him have a very real feeling about the rise of local furniture prices.

Mr. Wu said: "About half a year after the epidemic, our family began to buy furniture after decoration. At that time, there were many types of furniture in various furniture cities in Toronto, and the price was not very expensive. So I bought some furniture at that time, but I didn't buy all of it. Recently, I wanted to buy some furniture. When I went to the original furniture city, there was no furniture in the exhibition hall. Then I went shopping again Several other furniture cities also found that the number of furniture was much smaller. "

Mr. Wu told reporters that the local furniture not only has few categories, but also the price has risen sharply, "I bought the furniture in September and October last year. For example, I bought six dining tables and chairs. After the discount last year, it was only more than 380 Canadian dollars, but this year it actually rose to more than 900 Canadian dollars. The price of a sofa we bought was almost more than 2000 Canadian dollars. When we went to the furniture city this year, the price has risen to more than 4000 Canadian dollars."

Mr. Wu told reporters that Canada rarely produces furniture and mainly relies on imports from China, Vietnam and other countries. Mr. Wu believes that there are several main reasons for the sharp rise in the price of local furniture. First, after the epidemic, canadian house prices rose sharply and the real estate market was extremely hot, "House prices in Toronto have risen by more than 30% over the past year. Everyone is rushing to buy a house. When there are more houses, the demand for furniture will come up." Mr. Wu said that the second reason is the sharp change in international shipping prices. The reporter learned that the price of a 40 foot flat container on the route from the port in South China to the west of the United States rose from about $1800 in January 2020 to about $13000 in July 2021; the price of the route from the port in South China to the east of the United States rose from about $2800 in January 2020 to about $18000 in July 2021, as shown in Today, sea freight prices are still high, which has a great impact on the furniture industry, which mainly depends on sea freight.

The third reason, Mr. Wu believes, is that Canada imposes high tariffs and anti-dumping duties on imported furniture, which also leads to the decline of purchase intention and high prices in Canadian furniture stores.
In addition to rising prices and fewer goods, Mr. Wu found that the delivery efficiency of furniture has also become very low. "I ordered a bookcase last month. I asked when it would be delivered to my house. The other party said it was hard to say. It is estimated that it will not be delivered until the end of December. It takes almost two months for a bookcase to be delivered from order to delivery. This efficiency is really very low."

Lu Jintang, a Chinese student studying at the University of California at Irvine, recently wanted to buy furniture because he rented a house outside, "Many of the furniture I bought hasn't been delivered in nearly a month, such as mattresses. Overall, some small furniture markets in the United States have closed down, but the impact of large furniture stores is small. The main reason for the closure is related to the epidemic, and the price of furniture has indeed increased."

According to the data released by Shanghai Shipping Exchange, in October 2021, the departure service rate of Asian routes to the east of the United States was 7.81%, and the receipt and delivery service rate was only 17.93%; the arrival and departure service rate of Asian routes to the west of the United States was 15.05%, and the receipt and delivery service rate was 17.23%.