Freight could rebound by late April as Covid eases in China

The container shipping industry could see a “very strong” pickup starting late April as the Covid situation in China eases.
 
Shanghai has been on lockdown since last month because of a rise in Covid-19 cases. The city, also home to the world's busiest container port, subsequently suffered from a breakdown in the logistics supply chain, Tim Huxley, founder of Mandarin Shipping, told CNBC's “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.
 
The queue of container ships outside major Chinese ports like Shanghai has been getting longer by the day, and Huxley said many ships are not even calling in Shanghai now.
 
According to official data released by the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China, during the week from April 11 to 17, the handling and transportation of ships berthing at Shanghai port have been relatively normal. Compared with the first two months of this year, the time of international container ships in port and berthing has improved, and the efficiency of comprehensive transportation services and loading and unloading operations has been improved.
 
It may take a while for things to completely return to normal, but Huxley says “considerable” comfort can be taken in China's “incredibly quick” bounce back from its 2020 Covid lockdown.

“As a result, we then had the strongest surge in container freight rates and container shipping demand in history,” he added.
 
This time, we don't know obviously, but there is clearly going to be huge amounts of pent-up “demand, both with factories returning to work and with getting these exports and manufactured goods out again,” Huxley said.
 
Industry insiders predict that cargo volume of container ship will increase rapidly from May. A number of international freight carriers have announced “General Rate Increase” (GRI) of $1,000 - $2,000 per FEU on routes from Asia to the US from May 1, equivalent to a 10-20% increase in freights.

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