The COVID-19 epidemic has paralyzed the shipping supply chain. Global container shortages and port congestion incidents have continued to occur, and the port congestion problem continues to worsen. Currently, about 400 container ships around the world are stuck in queues at ports, and the container shipping market is facing the biggest crisis in the 65 years since the advent of container ships.
The British Financial Times quoted data provided by logistics company Kuehne+Nagel as saying that there are currently 353 container ships queuing up at ports around the world waiting to unload, and the congestion is even twice that of the beginning of this year. above. Taking the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on the west coast of the United States as an example, there are currently 22 ships waiting for berths, and the ships need to wait at least 12 days to anchor and unload their cargo. According to Drewry’s latest report, among the 496 sailings on major routes such as trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, Asia to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, 24 sailings have been canceled between weeks 31 to 34, with a cancellation rate of 5%. .
According to the latest statistics from Seaexplorer, there are 396 container ships berthed in ports around the world. Global port congestion as of August 13: (red dots represent ship groups, orange represents ports with congestion or operational disruption)
The biggest cause of global freight congestion is the different border control measures in various countries under the impact of the epidemic, as well as the forced shutdown of many factories, endangering the smoothness of the entire supply chain and resulting in lower freight rates in China, the United States and Europe. Soaring. Some experts pointed out that the supply chain was unable to cope with the surge in terminal demand, and the port infrastructure was old, leading to the biggest crisis in the container shipping industry in 65 years, which highlighted the problem of insufficient investment in the industry.
The epidemic is getting worse, and Southeast Asia is facing a nightmare of supply cuts!
The impact of the Delta mutant strain seems to be more serious in Southeast Asia. The local epidemic has intensified since July. The epidemic situation in many countries is close to the critical point, making the region Manufacturing is in trouble. At present, manufacturing manufacturers in Southeast Asia are generally facing the “five shortages” dilemma of “lack of materials, lack of cabinets, lack of cores, lack of workers, and lack of vaccines”. Chaos in Asian markets has the potential to distort global supply chains. According to United Nations estimates, about 42% of global exports come from Asia.
The latest data report released by financial information company IHS Markit shows that the manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) of ASEAN countries dropped to 49 in July from 49 in June. 44.6, which is below the boom-bust line for the second consecutive month and is a 13-month low. Among the seven ASEAN countries covered in the report, the manufacturing index of five countries is below 50, namely Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. The report stated that manufacturing demand in ASEAN countries declined further in July, with factory output and new orders declining for the second consecutive month, with the decline reaching the highest level since May 2020.
U.S. media recently reported: “The epidemic has caused factories in South and Southeast Asia to close, exacerbating the risk of disruption to the global supply chain. U.S. consumers may soon find local shelves There is nothing above.” China is naturally the best choice for buyers to transfer orders. Currently, many Southeast Asian orders have returned to China. But on the other hand, a large number of orders have gathered in China, which has continuously pushed up my country’s export freight. Products with low profits and low value have no room to ship.
At the same time, according to estimates by Natixis, the total exports of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand account for 5.7% of global exports, but they have a negative impact on the United States and Larger economies such as China have a significant impact.
With orders there is no profit and the risk is extremely high
Do you dare to do this kind of textile business?
Various measures to close cities, suspend markets, and suspend work occur from time to time, which is not good news for the textile industry that is highly dependent on foreign trade exports. According to a person in charge of a weaving company, the overall market situation this year is average, mainly because there are still some foreign trade orders. However, if these countries adopt measures to close cities and restrict travel later, it will inevitably have a certain impact on current orders.
An important feature of the improvement in the textile market is various price increases, especially the upstream raw material polyester filament. The price of raw materials that rose every day and every half a day at the beginning of the year clearly showed the booming textile market in front of us. The polyester filament that was in an upward trend in the early stage made people feel that the textile market seemed to have returned to its previous pessimistic state.
At present, it is understood that many foreign trade companies have received news that customers have stopped shipping due to high sea freight. And in the future, costs will continue to rise, and profits will be squeezed again and again! Someone said before that 2020 will be the “most difficult” year for foreign traders, but in fact the “most difficult” year has just begun. It doesn’t matter if there were no orders or performance last year. There are orders this year, but the most terrifying thing is that the general environment is eating away at your wealth.
The COVID-19 epidemic that is still raging overseas forces us to take precautions, especially the new mutated “Delta” and “Delta+” strains. After all, the epidemic has caused the bleakness of the textile market in the past two years. In the face of more dangerous viruses, textile people still need to be vigilant and not blindly prepare.��, take orders. It will be shipped this year, ship it and cherish it! </p
