Are extremely high price ocean freight going down? China, the United States and Europe urgently held a summit, shipping companies froze freight rates and limited premiums and surcharges from rising!

At present, unprecedented cargo shipping demands have caused the disruption of the maritime supply chain and soaring freight rates. With the advent of the autumn shipping season, it is expected that the shortage of containers will intensify, and the congestion of major container ports will also worsen.  

China, the United States and Europe held a global maritime regulatory summit

Are extremely high ocean freight going to drop?

Recently, senior government officials from China, the United States and the European Union participated in the Fifth Global Maritime Regulatory Summit to discuss serious supply chain disruptions.

According to FMC news, this meeting focused on the following three topics:

▪Industry dynamics since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, including the analysis of supply and demand, as well as the determination of the reasons for bottlenecks in the maritime supply chain and service interruptions;

▪ Actions taken by relevant jurisdictions and authorities to deal with these issues and their results;  

▪ The future direction and possible actions to improve the resilience of the industry and achieve smooth operation.  

It is reported that the summit discussed the development of the industry since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, including the challenges faced by the international container shipping industry and the broader issues of the maritime supply chain. Participants agreed that the COVID-19 epidemic has brought special challenges to shipping companies, ports, and logistics service operators moving in and out of the world.  

They exchanged views on actions taken in their respective jurisdictions and their outlook and views on the future, including possible actions to improve the resilience of the industry.  

Hapag-Lloyd: In addition to freeze the immediate freight, it will also limit the increase in premiums and surcharges!

A few days ago, after Hapag-Lloyd announced that it would freeze immediate freight, its official spokesperson said in an interview that in addition to freeze immediate freight, it will limit the substantial increase in premiums and other surcharges.  

"Does the upper limit include the upper limit of surcharges? Generally speaking, it is not included, but we have stopped charging any new high surcharges internally, especially for those with very high FAK rates." An official Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson said in an interview with Platts Energy Information.  

On September 9, CMA CGM launched the first shot of the "freight blockade", and it announced that it would stop all spot freight increases before February 1, 2022. Hapag-Lloyd followed closely, "freezing" the increase in spot freight.  

Since then, major liner companies have successively expressed their views on rising freight rates. Maersk said that (compared to spot freight) it is more inclined to sign long-term contracts with customers, while ONE said it would maintain its existing freight rate strategy.  

The latest announcement from the Ministry of Commerce: Foreign trade companies will welcome policy "gifts"

Due to the continuous global COVID-19 epidemic and the decline in international logistics capacity, the price of container shipping skyrocketed, and the explosion of warehouses and containers became the norm. Mainstream media such as CCTV exposed the industry as "a container is hard to find". These chain effects caused regulatory authorities highly valued.

At present, the Vice Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin said at the press conference of the State Council: Recent surveys showed that small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises have been under increasing operating pressure, and ocean freight rates remained high. The Shanghai Export Container Freight Index had continued to rise to 4568.16 points, which was 4 points of last year. The monthly low is nearly 6 times, especially the freight rates to Europe, West and East America are the highest.  

Some light industrial product export companies reported that the export freight had approached or exceeded the value of the goods, caused the situation that some orders are not dared to receive and some orders are not dared to be made.  

In addition, the prices of some raw materials are still high. In August, the PPI rose by 9.5%, of which the price of means of production rose by 12.7%, which has been rising for eight consecutive months. Affected by this, the profits of small and medium foreign trade enterprises have been severely squeezed and faced greater difficulties.  

Ren Hongbin said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce would insist on “stabilizing growth” and “promoting innovation” to improve together, closely tracking and judging changes in the international market situation, paying close attention to the development of market players, making policy reserves, enhancing foreign trade risk resistance, and maintaining foreign trade The cycle runs smoothly.  

The first is to launch targeted policy support measures at an appropriate time to increase assistance to small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises.  

The second is to actively participate in high-standard multilateral regional trade arrangements and support the multilateral trading system.  

The third is to jointly build the “Belt and Road” with high quality, promote the establishment of unimpeded trade working mechanisms with more trading partner countries, and sign the “Silk Road E-commerce” cooperation agreement.  

The fourth is to actively support the development of new forms and models of foreign trade such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, market procurement, and offshore trade.

The fifth is to successfully host important exhibitions such as the 130th Canton Fair and the 4th International Import Expo, sharing China's development opportunities with global companies and promoting the early recovery of global economic and trade.