Asia | US news digest. 28 May
US consumers make China great again
Driven by an upsurge in the US E-commerce consumer demand, container volumes from Asia to the US have set a new monthly record and marked the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year growth. According to data from an expert research company Descartes Datamyne, in April alone, imported container volumes into the US skyrocketed by over 30% year-on-year, amounting to a total of 1.57m teu shipped last month. The largest share of exports for 987,834TEU has come from China, which manifested a 46.5% jump compared to April 2020. Slow turnaround of ocean carriers due to port delays caused by congestion has resulted in disruption of shipping schedules in a major gateway in South China - Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT), prompting the port to stop accepting laden export containers earlier this week. According to China ports’ statistics, container volume at eight major Chinese ports indicated 15.8% annual increase in early May.
Amidst spiraling demand surge all major trade, corridors have seen container rates growth, marking 33.5% year-on-year increase, and 9% surge in prices just over the month of May. According to experts, much of this spectacular growth occurred across the first five months of the year with Far East export and European imports leading the way, – both indicating over 50% rise. Box freight rates from Shanghai to Rotterdam have crossed the $10,000 per feu mark for the first time in history, designating 485% jump from a year ago. This week, Swiss-based MSC said it would apply a temporary limitation on reefer container bookings from Europe to Asia because of significant shortage of reefer containers on the Europe-Asia trades.
In an attempt to improve its environmental footprint, LA based port of Long Beach has announced generous financial incentives as part of the Green Ship Incentive Program. The incentives range from US$600 to US$9,000 that can be awarded in credits to sea vessels meeting IMO's Tier III emission standard. Additionally, the port of Long Beach set aside $329.1 million budget in an ongoing capital improvement program to modernize terminals, rail, bridges, waterways, roads and other infrastructure to support the ongoing growth of operations and improve cargo flow, reliability and efficiency.
Yesterday, after a week’s long of pertinacious and concerted efforts by Sri Lankan Navy and Indian coastguards to put out the ravaging blaze aboard Singapore-bound 2,700 teu X-Press Pearl, carrying among other cargo 25 tons of nitric acid, 278 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of marine gas, some hope has emerged as the smoke from the ship started turning from pitch black to white. Shri Lankan authorities warned that the vessel could sink later today, and alerted population of a possible risk of acid rain falling across the island.
4,900 teu Japanese carrier NYK Delphinus has declared general average this week after the vessel experienced fire in the engine prior to arriving in Oakland two weeks ago. Freight insurance and risk management specialists have alerted shippers and ocean carriers to exercise more vigilance in view of increased cargo crime risks associated with the current supply chain disruptions.
Striving to meet a rapidly growing consumer demand across Asian continent, a new weekly service has been added by Maersk this week to connect the DP World-operated International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at the Port of Cochin India to ports in the Far East .The service will allow customers to reach global markets directly without transshipping at the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka, cutting transit time by as much as 10 days. On the other note, Danish-based container has temporarily ceased acceptance of new bookings to Mexico and some destinations in the Caribbean Sea due to the recent disruptions in North Europe and US ports.
South Korean feeder operators and its Thai and Singaporean allies will start new, second direct link services connecting southern China with Thailand, complementing its existing service that covers South China, Thailand and Northern Vietnam. Each carrier will contribute one 1,800TEU ship. Multiple South Korean feeder operators have seen their profits surge from %100-300% over the last year thanks to the intra-Asian trade rates boom and reduced oil prices.
OSCO Shipping Ports Chancay Peru has signed a $600 million contract with Chinese construction company CHEC SAC-CCCC4TH to build a new multipurpose terminal that would be intended to process approximately 1.5 million TEU a year, and receive vessels of 18,000 TEU directly from Asia.
