Sea freight has skyrocketed, and a cabinet is hard to find: Where did the cabinet go?

Recently, all foreign trade people have deeply felt the fact that ocean freight has risen to the point where one can doubt one's life. It is harder to grab a cabinet than to grab a train ticket during the Spring Festival.

A large shipping company over there was originally going to increase 100/200USD, but upon seeing Wan Hai’s notice, it immediately changed to 250/500USD.

The usual freight rates of these routes are only between 100-200 USD.

Here comes the question:

The soaring freight rate makes it hard to find a container. 

Is it really just because of the epidemic?

1) Cause of the epidemic

Due to the second round of counterattack by the epidemic in Europe, many European countries have begun to lock down cities again, and people cannot work and live normally, causing the cabinets to get stuck in major ports.

The wharf is full of cabinets, and even the exemption period is much shorter than before.

Before, you can apply for a two-week or even longer free storage period at the port of destination. Now I am sorry, please remove all the cabinets within a week, otherwise you will have to pay extra rent.

Obviously, the status of the locker stuck in the port of destination has no return, which directly leads to a decrease in the number of domestic lockers.

If only the quantity is reduced, it will not reach the point where it is hard to find a cabinet, and the worse situation is still to come.

2) Foreign trade orders skyrocketed

The epidemic has reduced the productivity of other countries in the world a lot. The production capacity of many countries is basically paralyzed. China has become the center of the world's factory in a short time.

Orders from Bangladesh, Vietnam, India and other Southeast Asian countries have been transferred to China.

I don't know how the other industries are, but as far as the small home appliance industry I do, my orders are now 300% of the same period last year, but the delivery period is 40 days longer than last year.

The long delivery period is due to the fact that foreign trade companies have too many orders, which has caused their domestic suppliers' orders to increase sharply, and they cannot deliver goods on time.

3) Shipping companies looting

The Southeast Asia route was not affected much, but as soon as the shipowner saw that the European route rose so aggressively, he immediately smelled the smell of money.

As a result, it began to artificially reduce the routes to Southeast Asia, deliberately causing a tight space, thereby greatly increasing the freight.

For shipping companies, cutting routes means reducing costs; Increasing shipping costs means that operating costs will not decrease or even increase.

In this way, it is easy to achieve the purpose of greatly increasing profit margins and obtaining huge profits in the short term.

Realistic reasons + man-made reasons eventually led to the current situation of hard-to-find containers and skyrocketing freight rates.