Since the New Crown pneumonia epidemic, global shipping prices fluctuate dramatically, all the way to high freight costs not only to the supply chain put on a heavy yoke, and even to a certain extent "dissuaded" some overseas orders. "Box worry difficult to solve", once became the foreign trade enterprises rely on sea transport especially solid topic.

Entering the summer of 2022, the traditional peak shipping season, some important logistics indices have finally changed, showing the stabilization of China's supply chain and the gradual recovery of the global logistics supply chain. Take Tianjin Shipping Index (TSI), the "wind vane" of domestic and foreign trade shipping prices in northern China, for example, closed at 1863.98 points on July 6, down 0.26% from the previous year, continuing the downward trend. Among them, the Northern International Container Tariff Index (TCI) closed at 3042.18 points, down 0.07% from the previous year.

Shipping index trajectory reflects the changes in the container transport market faced by enterprises since this year, showing that the contradiction between supply and demand is easing, transport costs and efficiency to return to normal. Industry insiders said, "Logistics turnaround is significantly faster, before it takes 1 to 2 months to book a position in advance, a week in advance since June."

As the main player in the international logistics supply chain, shipping prices, although still a large gap from the epidemic before, but tends to "the old days" of positive significance is still huge, which has been adhering to the epidemic prevention and development of both hands do not relax China's foreign trade to add some confidence.

The situation is gradually better

On the evening of June 27, the liner "Arabian Ghisri" slowly berthed at berth No. 2 of Dapu Terminal in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, after completing the entry and exit and container inspection and release procedures, the ship completed the loading and unloading operation of 7968 TEUs at Dapu Port Terminal, and then loaded mechanical parts, small household appliances and other commodities to ports in countries along the Mediterranean Sea.

Ltd. Operations and Operations Department Manager Assistant Wang Danli told reporters that this is the first ship of the new Mediterranean route, the route is expected to add 24,000 TEUs of import and export boxes per month. Since this year, Ningbo Zhoushan Port Dapukou Container Terminal operating international container routes increased to 27, to West Africa, East Africa, the Mediterranean and other 29 "Belt and Road" along the countries and regions of the 46 major ports.

Along with the opening of new routes, the port export box volume is also increasing, Zhoushan Customs actively guide enterprises to fast customs clearance, to protect the smooth operation of the new routes. "Recently, the terminal supervision place successfully completed the change, the yard container storage capacity exceeded 40,000 TEU, not only effectively enhance the port storage capacity, release the terminal production operation capacity, but also help optimize the operation process, help promote the port container throughput sustained growth." Wang Danli said, at present, the terminal is working closely to promote the opening of the port of berth 3.

Similar hot scene is also staged in many places: the Shanghai Yangshan Deepwater Port Phase IV automated terminal 10,000 tons of huge ships one after another to the sea level, Yangtze River Yangzhou port loaded with 30 pieces of wind power blades and 173 pieces of wind power equipment components of the general bulk carrier "Oren" downstream straight into the East China Sea.

As the shipping supply chain operation efficiency is improving day by day, the main shipping line tariff are down, the shipping index is steadily falling to release the positive signal that the export enterprises resume work and production, the port transportation is steadily "warming up".

Shanghai Shipping Exchange news on July 4 said that the comprehensive service level of China's major ports remained stable in June, and the average time of ships in port of major ports in the United States was reduced. The data released by several shipping consulting agencies also show that the spot freight rate of some routes from Asia to Europe and the United States market has declined recently, and the freight rate of U.S. West has dropped to $7,000 from about $13,000 before the Spring Festival. Shanghai export container freight index has also fallen back to a high level, has fallen more than 17% during the year.

To ensure smooth passage still need to multi-faceted efforts

In the hot summer, several major hub ports are in full power, to protect the transport behind, is the vitality of Chinese export enterprises.

Henglin town of Changzhou is known as China's "laminate wood flooring export base", the export volume accounted for one-third of the national total, the town has more than 130 terminal production enterprises and more than 300 supporting enterprises, many of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. During the previous epidemic in Shanghai, the short 170-kilometer highway between Henglin and Shanghai port became an insurmountable obstacle for these local enterprises.

At the critical moment, Changzhou Company, a subsidiary of Shanghai Container Lines, built a green lifeline straight to Shanghai Port, steadily guarding the supply chain on which the real economy depends, and providing a solid backing for the battle of "resuming work and production".

After noticing that the customer's shipment was blocked, the company established a response mechanism with local terminals and railroad yards on the one hand, and effectively alleviated the impact of road blockage on the supply chain through the "dual channel" mode of water-to-water transfer and railroad intermodal transportation. On the other hand, the company increased the regulation and control efforts to speed up the return of empty containers.

"To meet the growth of export demand, the first thing is to have enough empty boxes, the organization and coordination of box sources is the key to 'keep supply and production'." According to the relevant person in charge of Changzhou company under Shanghai Container Lines, in early April, the company organized a special meeting to meet the demand of Shanghai port mapping with boxes, optimize the air transfer path, timely from Shanghai, Taicang, Nantong and other ports, through the feeder barges and sea iron source of empty boxes, effectively alleviating the situation of "a box is hard to find" before During the epidemic, China has been importing empty containers through feeder barges and sea railway.

During the epidemic, China guided the major international liner companies to strengthen the flight and space input guarantee in the hub port routes, and formulated and implemented the policy of lowering the pilotage fee charges in coastal ports to maintain the stable and orderly development of the industry chain supply chain, which played an important role in enhancing the confidence and vitality of market players and smoothing the domestic and international double cycle. It is reported that from January to May this year, major international liner companies have put a total of 9.87 million TEU of space in China's major export ocean-going routes.

In early June, the Standing Committee of the State Council proposed to study the phased reduction or exemption of port-related fees, and recently, Ningbo Port and Tianjin Port have both issued notices of partial fee reduction or exemption. Xiamen Port has also recently issued a notice to support the development of foreign trade and shipping enterprises through cash subsidies and other means to promote the development of port container business.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)