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Chinese exporters vying for slots on container ships face months of anxiety, DHL says
- ‘For many of our customers it means a lot more inefficiency, a lot more uncertainty,’ says Asia-Pacific CEO of DHL Global Forwarding
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Daniel Renin Shanghai
A shortage of slots on container vessels leaving China, which has caused a surge in freight rates, is unlikely to ease in the coming few months because global shipping giants have no additional transport capacity, according to one of the world’s leading air and ocean freight companies.
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Niki Frank, Asia-Pacific CEO of DHL Global Forwarding, told the Post on Wednesday he does not see light at the end of tunnel and that he has sent an ominous warning to cargo owners about the lofty costs of shipping Chinese-made goods abroad.
“We don’t believe that the Red Sea situation will change in the near future,” he said, referring to disruptions caused by attacks on ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. “At the same time, we see the [shipping] demand that started to increase in the last few weeks as quite sustainable.
“So our best estimate is that for the next three or four months, we will see a similar situation.”
The cost of shipping a 20-foot container from Shanghai to Europe has jumped by about 20 per cent over the past month to US$7,000 as Chinese manufacturers of toys, leather shoes and festive lights rushed to book slots to ship the goods to their overseas buyers.
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The exporters have front-loaded their shipments owing to worries about the prolonged Red Sea risks as well as higher tariffs slapped on Chinese-made goods by authorities in the US. They normally start shipping goods ordered by Western buyers for Christmas and the new year from July.
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