How’s freight shipping shaping up for the holidays? – By Beege Welborn (Hot Air) / Nov 11, 2022
Fugly – from feast to famine in so many words ‘twould seem, and shipments once again moving in timely manners a pipedream always enticingly out of reach. From the COVID-exacerbated problem of no containers to move freight…
…Seven of the world’s 10 largest container ports are located in China, and more than 50% of the global container shipping volume is handled at Chinese ports, the main reason being that China is not only the world’s largest exporter but also the world’s second-largest importing country. This global structure governing exports and imports necessitates the formation of a China-oriented container positioning cycle in container transportation. After a full container is discharged according to this positioning cycle, the container needs to be quickly positioned in China, regardless of whether it is empty or full and then shipped to different regions once it is full. This cycle plan increases the number of containers exported from China and leads to an insufficient number of imported containers. In addition, trade volumes of containerized cargoes increase rapidly with the increase in China-based trade activity that typically occurs before the New Year [14]. The empty container shortage recently experienced can be attributed to all the commercial activities carried out in this process [22]. The emergence of COVID-19 in China, which is recognized as the export center of the world, during the period of the highest export volumes resulted in a rapid decrease of commercial activity in the country and a much more intensive container shortage problem in the world than ever seen in the past
…to the exact opposite problem now. Too many empty containers and a shortage of space to store them. The problem is worldwide, not just at congested U.S. ports.
