Cargo Business Newswire

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Top Story

China’s exporters face space challenges ahead of Lunar New Year

Container-shipping capacity cuts in the Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific trades could reportedly create difficulties for China’s exporters ahead of that country’s impending Lunar Year holiday.

"Shippers and receivers would be wise to factor in an additional seven days to the average transit time between Asia and Europe," said Jacques Chan, general manager, Hong Kong and South China for freight forwarder BDP International, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

Cargo owners have reportedly been paying shipping lines a premium as a guarantee on the timing of shipments before China’s major annual holiday that, in effect, shuts many of its factories down for a two-week period beginning January 23.

"The cargo can sit in a container yard for a week before reloading onto another vessel destined to Europe. Shippers are paying premiums to protect cargo space that they have already reserved. We are talking about [an extra] $200-300 per container in most cases," Chan said in the Post story.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is reportedly monitoring trans-Pacific shipments in the event of potential disproportionate delays and rate increases in the wake of large-scale service consolidation that amounts to a space reduction of 15 percent in that trade lane, according to statistics culled by the Post.

The spot rate for Hong Kong-Los Angeles container-shipping services is $1,832 per-FEU, the Post reported.

For the full South China Morning Post story: topics.scmp.com