Towering cranes work overtime swinging containers from cargo
vessels in the eastern Chinese port of Lianyungang, racing to keep ahead of a
perfect storm unleashed by the pandemic that has created gridlock in global
shipping.
اضافة اعلان
As the huge containers were flung onto trucks with a
thunderous clang, Shi Jiangang, a top official with Chinese shipping company
Bondex Logistics, reflected on the backlog.
“It’s been a very great challenge,” he said.
The ship being offloaded was a South Korean vessel that
normally also carries passengers but has been given over entirely to cargo. In
the distance, a fleet of other vessels waited offshore.
Lianyungang is not alone.
The global shipping network that keeps food, energy, and
consumer goods circulating — and the world economy afloat — is facing its
biggest stress test in memory.
Maritime trade came under the microscope after a
Japanese-owned megaship ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the busy
channel for nearly a week.
It was refloated last week but the larger crisis remains,
amid warnings that soaring freight costs could affect supplies of key goods or
consumer prices.
The situation arose last year as the expanding pandemic
jammed the sprawling, predictable patterns by which shipping containers are
shared around the world’s ports.
When many countries began easing Covid-19 restrictions late
last summer, a wave of pent-up demand from hunkered-down consumers bingeing on
internet purchases delivered a shock to supply lines.
Exports from nations like China soared.
But since the end of 2020, vessels have piled up outside
overburdened Western ports, leaving Asian exporters clamoring for the return of
empty containers needed for further shipments.
At Lianyungang — China’s 10th-busiest port, according to the
World Shipping Council — desperate firms are pressing rail-cargo containers
into maritime service, placing rush orders for new ones, and rerouting some
shipping to other Chinese ports.
The price to ship a 40-foot container from Lianyungang to
the United States has soared to more than $10,000, from the usual
$2,000-$3,000, Shi said.
The situation is “putting pressure on everyone in the supply
chain,” he said.
American consumer demand has been a key driver.
The Port of Los Angeles said last month that processed
volume in February jumped 47 percent year-on-year, the strongest February in
its 114-year history. The number of empty containers stranded there has also
soared.
An LA port official told AFP last week that more than two
dozen ships were waiting to berth outside Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two
busiest ports in the United States.
Normally there is no wait, but delays now average more than
a week.
“We basically have a couple of weeks of work, but more ships
come in every day,” another West Coast port official told AFP.
Compounding the gridlock, many container vessels had been
pulled from the market for refitting to meet carbon-reduction standards, while
occasional coronavirus clusters have also slowed processing.
The Port of Los Angeles’ executive director, Gene Seroka,
said recently the facility was focused on vaccinating port workers and pushing
cargo through.
“It’s critical that we clear the backlog of cargo and return
more certainty to the Pacific trade,” Seroka said.
S&P Global Platts said vessels were also log jammed in
Singapore, and that sailing-schedule reliability was at a 10-year low.
Not everyone is complaining, though. Denmark’s Maersk, the
world’s largest container transporter, swung from a loss in 2019 to a $2.9
billion profit last year largely thanks to soaring volumes and higher prices in
2020’s final quarter.
But German Industry Federation director Holger Losch said
that the situation was beginning to hit German industry.
“Sectors that are dependent on delivery of raw materials or
components, as well as the shipping of their finished products ... suffer from
this in particular,” Losch said.
The one-two punch of the pandemic and the Suez Canal backlog
has sparked a conversation about reforms, particularly the need for greater
digitization to smooth flows.
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