2008 Ocean Export Capacity Crunch
March 24, 2008 by Splatty
Filed under Seafreight
Having trouble booking a container of widgets to Asia? You’re not alone. With the sagging U.S. dollar, container exports are booming especially on the Trans-Pacific Westbound lane. 2007 saw a substantial increase in containerized exports and reports I have been reading show that exports to Asia are anticipated to increase 20 percent this year.
These factors are causing significant pressures on shippers and forwarders alike trying to secure space. We are starting to see export containers being rolled to subsequent bookings due to lack of vessel space and new export bookings limited to vessel sailings 4 to 6 weeks out. In addition, due to carriers switching Asia Eastbound containers to more lucrative European lanes, there are fewer containers available to load back to Asia. Inland container pools are a at a premium and many shippers are electing to move their product via full truck loads to major port locations in order to take advantage of larger container pools.
We could be in for a rough ride as far as containerized exports are concerned. If you have regular shipments on a specific trade lane, make sure to contact your forwarder to develop a contingency plan and agree on pre-booking containers as far out as you can. Of course, if you have trouble moving your product via ocean, you can always ship it air…spoken like a true forwarder.
SwizStick on Wed, 26th Mar 2008 5:06 pm
One of the carriers I use (imports) told me they had a 5-6 week backlog of exports out of the West Coast. They also told me that from November through March they had raised export rates several times, from $100-600 depending on the commodity and that their export customers were accepting the rates without question.
I also spoke with another carrier who claimed they had stopped accepting any new export customers, as well as a temporary halt to export bookings until things cleared up. I honestly haven’t seen anything like this on the ocean export side since the mid-90’s.
Maritime Monday 104 | gCaptain.com on Mon, 31st Mar 2008 5:42 am
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