Ocean Freight Performance in January 2021
January 2021 - Transportation Market Report
The ocean market is going through historic issues the likes of which we have never seen. Even when you think of the ocean market in 2014, there were upwards of 25 to 30 vessels that were anchored in the port. As of today, we are seeing 35 to 40 container vessels at anchor. The main factors leading to the historic issues are productivity and capacity.
Productivity at the ports remains challenging. They just recorded that 1,800 longshoremen have tested positive or in some sort of quarantine, which is impacting the labor there. We also have historic high volumes for what is supposed to be a slack season for ocean freight.
Unfortunately, if you look at some of the indicators that on what is coming in each week, it is not slowing down. Everybody is trying to pull in goods now before Chinese New Year, which starts February 12th. There is normally a ramping down before the Lunar new year then everything shut down in China and then a ramped back up. In previous years it was a month-long process, what we are seeing right now is volumes super high. There is no end in sight on these volumes and therefore we expect this congestion on the west coast to continue.
Even when vessels can get into their birthing slot it is taking longer to unload a vessel than what is typical. On average it is taking around seven days to move a container from the ship to a warehouse, but we have even heard it being as long as two weeks. And then you have the equipment shortage problem. All the delays are leading to a massive origin equipment shortage in China and Southeast Asia which will not be going away anytime soon.
We are just seeing some astronomical pricing for containers moving to the U.S. For example, if you are moving to the Midwest, we are hearing rates of around $10,000 for a 44-foot container. And everybody is looking to do the same thing they want to diversify. Unfortunately, there is no immediate solution unless you have the budget and the appetite for air freight.
The best thing that you can do is talk to your finance people, talk to your merchandises, talk to your buyers, talk to everybody, and make sure that they are informed on what is happening so they can make the necessary adjustment. But first and foremost, I would always go back to my finance people to let them know the situation. The costs that they have traditionally seen and probably budgeted for are not going to be going to hold for the time being. And they are going to want to true up that budget on a monthly or quarterly basis.
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