Transport Update 15th November

Asia → North America (Transpacific Eastbound)

Rates

• • A downward trend in spot rates, decreasing to under $10,000 in some cases.
  • Rates need to be monitored as increases are anticipated in response to increasing demand. 
  • According to the Freightos Baltic Exchange (FBX) spot rates from Asia to the US West Coast slumped by 26% in the past week to $13,924 per 40ft.
  • Spot rates from Asia to the East Coast decreased by 20% to $15,865 per 40ft.

Capacity

• New US consumption data has been released for September 2021 by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. 
  • Growth in personal consumption has reversed back to pre-pandemic levels in September 2021.
  • Growth in consumption of goods is still fast outpacing that of services. 
  • This consumption boom is driving container volumes and shows no signs of abating in September. We do not expect to see a decline in demand to alleviate congestion in the short to medium term.
• Wan Hai has started to divert ships from its Asia-US West Coast service to its core intra-Asia services. This is due to severe congestion at Californian ports affecting its sailing schedules.  

Ports

• Delays at Long Beach and LA are still ongoing.
  • 79 vessels are waiting to berth in both ports.
  • An estimated 500,000 TEU of holiday goods are sitting at anchor in the San Pedro Bay area awaiting a berth. 
  • The Los Angeles Signal data shows that another 158,000 TEU of manifested cargo is due to arrive at the port this week. 
  • However, there will be a significant drop in imports heading to the US West Coast as 96,000 TEU of cargo will arrive between the 21st to 27th November.
• Tacoma has been suffering from worsening congestion and is following in the same steps as Los Angeles and Long Beach. .
  • Late fees of $230 a day kick in once a container has been at a terminal for more than four days.
  • The port’s Husky terminal will not release containers that have been on the premises for more than 15 days until importers pay an additional one-time charge of $315. 
  • From 15th November, customers of the Washington United Terminal face a long-term dwell fee of $310 for containers at the terminal for more than 15 days. 

• From the beginning of December, transport company Norfolk Southern will cut free dwell time for importers at 27 second-tier rail ramps. 
  • Importers will now incur charges from the day after notification of a container’s availability.
  • The rail carrier is also raising demurrage fees in all 27 locations and will charge $200 on the first day beyond the limit, and $215 for each additional day. 

Asia → Europe (Far East Westbound)

Rates

• Spot rates from HMM, Evergreen, MSC and Yang Ming continue to be stable for the second half of November. 
• The Drewry’s World Container Index has announced that rates from Asia to North Europe remained unchanged at $13,801 per 40ft which is 500% higher than a year ago. 
• The Suez Canal has announced that they will increase their fees by 6% from 1st February 2022. 

Capacity

• In China, power restrictions will be stopped in December
  • Factories should be running as normal in December. 
  • Demand is expected to increase from the end of November to mid January in time for Chinese New Year. 
• In Vietnam, a reduction in Covid measures has resulted in greater investment in services. However, there is still a lot of congestion due to a backlog of existing demand.
• The average delay of a roundtrip on this lane is 17 days.
  • The delay from the 2M Alliance is 15 days
  • The Ocean Alliance has an average delay of 9 days
    • However, services that did not skip ports had an average delay of 17 days. 
  • The Alliance has an average delay of 36 days. The reason for this delay is because The Alliance calls at all North European ports.

Ports

• Congestions and bottlenecks at the Port of Rotterdam are likely to persist through 2022 despite throughput volume being above 2019 levels. 
  • Rotterdam continues to be constrained by various logistical challenges. 
  • Ships are not currently waiting outside the port but storage capacities are full.
  • The port is taking various short-term steps including data sharing,to increase the speed of throughput, and long-term infrastructure investments in expansions and connections with the hinterland.

Europe→ USA (Transatlantic Westbound)

• Capacity
  • The average delays for the Transatlantic services is around 9 days
  • Only two of the nine ships returning to the Benelux area in week 45 between North Europe and the US East Coast completed their voyages within schedule.

Air