Weak international demand for Chinese goods has led to an increase in cancellations of shipments at the country’s largest ports, dampening the expected economic boost from China’s emergence from the coronavirus zero policy.
Chinese industry insiders point to an increase in “air flights” where carriers miss ports because they don’t have enough cargo to pick them up or fear delays.
Cancellations are typical within the industry and usually increase during the Chinese New Year, but supply chain data provider Drewry said rates were “exceptionally elevated” this year due to lower demand in the West. said that China’s exports fell for the third month in a row, weakening the core of its struggling economic model.
Drewry said the cancellation rate for ships headed east from Asia or to Europe across the Pacific will reach 31% in the coming weeks, compared with 23% in the same period last year and 16% in 2021. That’s what I mean.
Weak demand but also an estimated hundreds of millions of Covid-19 cases in the past month have led to lower shipments under pressure It will affect the country’s supply chain, leading to staff shortages and factory closures.
“what happened Shipping Market as the virus spread all over China. . . Mark Young, CEO of Shanghai-based Asia Maritime Pacific, which owns a fleet of dozens of vessels, said:
“There are a lot of empty ships in the market, but not enough cargo to ship,” he added, comparing the situation to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
For three years, China’s vast infrastructure linking factories and ports has been working on a strict zero-Covid regime that requires frequent quarantines of personnel and “closed-loop” operations. Although this policy resulted in delays and cancellations, exports increased significantly during that time as demand for the goods surged.
Simon Sundboell, founder and CEO of data provider eeSea, said the nature of the disruption has changed from a scenario caused by delays within a “hot market” to a scenario of weak demand.
“The industry is slowly getting back to normal and we need more cancellations due to lower demand,” he said. “Last year it was due to all these excessive delays.”
A Shanghai-based manufacturer, who requested anonymity, said carriers “just don’t go into the port because they don’t have the volume.” He added that the drop in demand “has resulted in shipping lines reducing the number of vessels in circulation.”
Jan Diehlman, head of Cargill Ocean Transportation, said the coronavirus outbreak was “absolutely” contributing to the increase in air travel. Commodity Shipping Group has not canceled deliveries, but has cut back on coal shipments to China in recent months, partly due to seasonal shifts in demand.
Asia-Maritime Pacific has been forced to cancel sailings to ports on the Yangtze River to pick up steel-related cargo, Young said. He plans to retrieve it on another ship within a month.
Against the backdrop of a weakening economy, global air travel has increased over the past year. in China, first national epidemic The coronavirus outbreak coincided with preparations for the Chinese New Year. Danish container shipping company Maersk said “demand is expected to be volatile given the holiday closures in China and both the Covid situation and ongoing destocking in the US and Europe”. I was.
Nonetheless, Anne-Sophie Zahlang-Carlsen, Maersk’s head of maritime operations in the Asia-Pacific region, said a broad easing of Covid-19 measures “could significantly boost China’s economy.” It was suggested that
Cargill’s Diehlman said the shipping industry now relies on a recovery in economic activity. “People first [Covid-19] The waves will go,” he said. “There will be some stimulus from the government, so people will start to get bullish.”
