The Corona crisis has thrown supply chains into disarray internationally. Juergen Schuster, chief executive of e-commerce specialist Raumschmiede sees current problems in global freight container logistics that are not expected to return to normal until spring.
Apart from all the social upheavals, the Corona pandemic is also having a considerable impact on international trade. Since freight container capacities for the transport of goods from Asia to Germany are currently only available in far too small numbers, there are considerable problems in the international movement of goods.
Not enough freight capacities
The main reason for this is the increased demand for household and consumer goods resulting from the Corona restrictions. Since these mainly come from Asia, a very high additional demand for corresponding freight capacities has arisen. As there is a backlog in the European destination countries for the removal and unloading of containers in view of the greatly swollen flow of imported goods and, on the other hand, generally fewer containers are flowing back to China & Co. due to the still low exports to Asia, there is currently not enough freight capacity available for the German import demand. Our forwarding service providers estimate the current backlog for China alone at several hundred thousand containers.
Adapt as quickly and flexibly as possible
The generally low availability and the additional costs for shipping empty containers back to Asia are currently leading to severe delivery delays and rapidly rising freight prices. Within the last three months, for example, the freight costs for a standard 40-foot container have exploded from a good USD 1,000 to currently over USD 6,000, and the trend is still rising.
Jürgen Schuster, Managing Director of Raumschmiede GmbH in Genderkingen. Among other things, the company operates the online shops Garten & Freizeit.de, Betten.de and Piolo.
We, therefore, have to monitor global logistics very closely in real-time in order to be able to adapt our delivery processes as quickly and flexibly as possible. If possible, we bring forward goods that are needed at short notice before prices rise even further. In addition, since certain content types such as 40HQ are in greater demand, we switch to more readily available transport units at an early stage, if the size of the goods and the number of units allow it.
Since container spaces on ships have to be booked some time in advance, it is important that we are in constant exchange with our suppliers in order to obtain spaces in good time and to be able to switch to other, already available deliveries in the event of delays in a commodity. At the same time, there is always the chance to take over places from other importers that have become free at short notice. In individual cases, we also switch to container transport by rail.
Improvement only in spring
In our opinion, the current freight problems will continue worldwide at least until March 2021. The situation will even worsen until the Chinese New Year on 12 February. Since almost all of China will be at a standstill for weeks around this date, as many goods as possible will be shipped beforehand. This in turn increases the volume demanded and the already too tight capacities cannot absorb the high demand.
Due to the current exceptional situation and in view of the fact that Europe will not yet have overcome the current crisis situation in February and March 2021, I assume that the globally unbalanced logistics will only return to normal next year from the beginning of the warm season. Until then, freight rates will continue to rise. As a result, low-priced items could be more expensive or delayed in the coming months.
For the period after Corona, we expect an overall increase in online demand, as the shopping behaviour of many people will have changed permanently.
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