Increase capacity, stabilize the market and ensure smooth flow (observation of production and production, guarantee the safety of industrial chain supply chain ③)
Container ships berthed at Shanghai Yangshan Port. People’s vision
"Blocking points" increase, one cabin is hard to find, and one box is hard to find … … Since the second half of last year, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the international container shipping operation is not smooth, the transportation capacity is tight and the freight rate is rising, which has brought a lot of pressure to some Chinese enterprises, especially foreign trade enterprises. In view of this situation, relevant departments such as transportation, commerce, industry and information, as well as shipping, ports, container production and other enterprises have taken action to help foreign trade enterprises solve problems. What have all localities, departments and related enterprises done? What is the current effect? The reporter conducted an interview.
Tight transport capacity and rising freight rates
Poor shipping has put a lot of pressure on foreign trade enterprises.
"In early June, I was very nervous and the production line was almost forced to stop!" Zhejiang Juyi Group is a foreign trade enterprise that produces footwear products, with an annual export volume of nearly 100 million US dollars, and its products are mainly sold to European and American countries. The main reason that makes Pan Jianzhong, the chairman, nervous is the poor international shipping. "There is no shortage of orders, but there are 200 containers of shoes in the factory. First, the storage space is limited; Second, if you can’t get the money back, the funds will become a problem. "
Like most export enterprises in China, Juyi Group signed a trade contract with foreign customers on FOB terms, that is, overseas buyers were responsible for logistics and paid freight, which was not affected by freight fluctuation in theory. "In the past, we didn’t have to worry about export logistics. But now the global shipping is not smooth, and it is difficult for foreign customers to solve it. We have to find our own way. " Pan Jianzhong told reporters that when there was an urgent need, COSCO Shipping extended a helping hand to enterprises and arranged transportation capacity under the active coordination of transportation, commerce and other departments. "From the end of June, 10 to 15 containers will be arranged to go to sea every week. In August, production basically returned to normal, capital turnover was smooth, and we dared to take orders again. "
International shipping plays an irreplaceable role in serving economic and social development and smoothing global trade. In China, about 95% of international trade goods are completed by sea. However, since last year, the global spread of the epidemic has kept the international shipping market under pressure.
The most direct impact is poor turnover and tight transportation capacity.
"Affected by the epidemic, the ports in some countries are seriously congested, the inland transportation cycle is blocked, and the supply of crew members continues to be tight. The time for ships to stay in Hong Kong, including anchorage waiting time and terminal operation time, has been greatly extended." Jia Dashan, vice president of the Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said that in August and September this year, the quasi-scheduled rate of global trunk routes has dropped from over 70% under normal circumstances to less than 20%. According to statistics, in the past, the round-trip time of liner from Shanghai to ports in western America, eastern America and northwestern Europe was about 46 days, 76 days and 82 days respectively, but since July this year, the time has been lengthened to 61 days, 87 days and 99 days respectively.
While the long ship turnover time leads to the shortage of transportation capacity, the container turnover is also greatly affected, and a large number of empty containers are overstocked in some overseas ports and freight yards. For a period of time, "one cabin is hard to find" and "one box is hard to find" in the market, which has become a bottleneck restricting international trade.
Strong foreign trade demand and insufficient effective supply of transportation capacity have caused the freight rate to rise.
"In the first half of last year, the demand in the shipping market declined and was at a low point. Since the second half of last year, with the recovery of global trade, the maritime demand of various countries has recovered rapidly. " Jia Dashan said that compared with the situation that supply and demand were basically balanced and slightly surplus in 2019, due to the decline of turnover efficiency, the supply of effective transport capacity was lost by more than 15%, which had little impact on about 60% of long-term transport agreements and contracts in the market, and the shortage of transport capacity was concentrated in 40% of the spot market, resulting in a sharp increase in global shipping container freight rates.
According to Jia Dashan, from the Spring Festival this year to the end of March, the contradiction between supply and demand eased relatively, and the freight rate in the international container market dropped for eight consecutive weeks. However, after April, due to the Suez Canal blocking incident and the epidemic situation in some countries and regions, the capacity of major routes in the world continued to be tight, and the freight rate generally increased.
"The government departments have promoted the cooperation between port and shipping enterprises and import and export enterprises, and advocated mutual benefit and win-win, which has benefited us." To Pan Jianzhong’s peace of mind, the price offered by COSCO Shipping has obvious advantages compared with the average freight rate in the market.
Increase transport capacity and stabilize the market
Government departments and related enterprises take active actions to ensure smooth shipping.
Behind the steady operation of foreign trade enterprises and the rapid growth of China’s foreign trade are a series of measures taken by government departments and related enterprises.
— — Increase the supply of transportation capacity and resolve the "one cabin is hard to find".
"Since the third quarter of last year, COSCO Shipping has put all its transportation capacity into the market, and the company’s transportation capacity has reached a historical peak." The relevant person in charge of COSCO Shipping told the reporter that while actively increasing the market charter efforts, COSCO Shipping accelerated the ships on existing routes, freed up the capacity, increased the supply of shipping spaces on trunk lines in Europe and America, and organized the capacity to provide overtime ships and open special lines to provide more shipping spaces.
The relevant person in charge of the Water Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Transport said that it has actively coordinated and guided liner companies to increase investment in China’s export routes with relevant departments. In the first three quarters, the number of shipping spaces invested by major liner companies in China’s main export routes increased by more than 27% compared with the same period in 2020, which was significantly higher than the 4.5% increase of global shipping spaces in the same period.
Port enterprises have also taken active actions. Since the second quarter of last year, Zhoushan Port in Ningbo has taken some measures for foreign trade liner companies, such as giving priority to the berthing of ships, reducing the pilotage fees of tugboats, and extending the stacking-free period, so as to strive for foreign trade ships to berth and adjust containers.
— — Actively dispatch and produce empty containers to solve the problem that "one box is hard to find".
On the one hand, speed up the return of overseas empty containers. Cosco Shipping made full use of the return shipping space by adding ports and other means to speed up the return of overseas empty containers. In the first 10 months of this year, the cumulative return of empty containers from overseas exceeded 4.9 million TEUs, an increase of 23.6% year-on-year.
On the other hand, speed up the production of new boxes. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Transport actively coordinated China’s container manufacturing enterprises to fully expand production, so that the monthly production capacity increased from 200,000 TEUs to the highest in history of 500,000 TEUs. With the release of new container capacity in China, the turnover of empty containers has accelerated, and the shortage of empty containers has basically been alleviated. At present, the inventory of new containers in China’s major container manufacturers has exceeded 700,000 TEUs, and the supply of new containers is fully guaranteed.
— — Strengthen the docking of supply and demand and maintain market stability.
In China, many foreign trade enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are unfamiliar with export transportation and often entrust freight forwarding enterprises to go through the formalities. In the case of tight shipping space, some freight forwarders have increased the price of sea freight, which has increased the pressure on SMEs. In order to solve this problem, COSCO Shipping has broadened the channels for directly serving the majority of small and medium-sized shippers with the help of Syncon Hub foreign trade e-commerce platform. At present, the platform has covered all foreign trade routes in China, and realized the functions of self-service price inquiry and online confirmation of booking. Cosco Shipping also introduced some warm-hearted measures, such as increasing the number of small and medium-sized direct passenger overtime boats, establishing a supervision mechanism for small and medium-sized customers to give priority to cabin release, and opening an e-commerce line for small and medium-sized customers. The number of small and medium-sized customers served in the first 10 months increased by 9.5% year-on-year.
Effective response to stable recovery
Successfully coping with the changes in international shipping can not only save the day, but also turn the crisis into an opportunity.
In the first three quarters of this year, China’s port cargo throughput and container throughput reached 11.55 billion tons and 210 million TEUs respectively, up by 8.9% and 9.5% respectively, with an average increase of 5.9% and 4% respectively in two years. The throughput of foreign trade goods reached 3.54 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%— — According to the data of the Ministry of Transport, China’s shipping market is recovering steadily.
In the interview, the reporter found that for Chinese enterprises, successfully coping with the changes in international shipping can not only save the day, but also turn the crisis into an opportunity.
The competitiveness of foreign trade enterprises is expected to be further enhanced.
"Some competitors are affected by the epidemic, or they are unable to start work or are difficult to export, and we can carry out normal production and export, thus obtaining a large number of orders." Zhang Meili, vice president of Zhengte Co., Ltd., Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, told reporters that the company mainly produces and exports outdoor leisure furniture. In the past two years, although the international shipping price has increased the product price, the demand in Europe and the United States is still strong. "We can even ‘ Select ’ Customers. "
China is at the forefront of the world in epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery, allowing foreign trade enterprises to gain more market opportunities. In the first half of the year, the international market share of China’s import and export, export and import was about 13.2%, 14.5% and 12%, respectively, up by 0.8, 0.9 and 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, and China continued to maintain its position as the largest country in goods trade.
The close cooperation between foreign trade enterprises and shipping enterprises is expected to be further deepened.
"Using FOB method, marine logistics is handed over to overseas customers. Now, we are more inclined to sign CIF trade contracts (export enterprises are responsible for transportation and payment of freight), set up overseas warehouses and organize logistics. " Zhang Meili said that under the test of the epidemic, China’s backbone shipping enterprises have won more recognition for their stable and efficient performance.
During the interview, some insiders expressed their concern about the uncertainty of the shipping market. From the demand point of view, with the gradual recovery of national economies, international trade has picked up, and some institutions predict that the global container freight volume will increase between 6% and 9% this year. From the perspective of capacity supply, most of the existing 24 million TEU container fleet in the world has been put into operation, and the annual capacity growth is expected to be less than 5%, which is less than the demand growth rate. Under the background that the global epidemic is still spreading, the imbalance between supply and demand will continue for a long time.
Coping with the changing situation requires enterprises to deepen long-term cooperation. The relevant person in charge of the Water Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Transport said that foreign trade enterprises and shipping enterprises are encouraged to sign long-term transport agreements to ensure the supply of transport capacity and reduce freight rates. COSCO Shipping also actively strengthens docking with leading enterprises in the industry and signs long-term transportation agreements to provide stable long-term transportation prices and capacity support. In January this year, they signed a cooperation agreement with Midea Group to cooperate deeply in container transportation and "end-to-end" logistics supply chain. As of the beginning of November, the cooperation volume of all routes between the two sides increased by more than 600% year-on-year.
In addition to increasing the proportion of long-term transport agreements, Jia Dashan suggested that China should take measures in construction and supervision to deal with the challenges brought by the epidemic to the maritime industry: speeding up the construction of port infrastructure and improving the resilience to emergencies; Accelerate the construction of automated terminals and smart logistics to improve the safety and reliability of the supply chain; Strengthen relevant regulatory measures to promote sustained and healthy development of the market.