Cost of shipping between China and U.S. plunges
An executive with a Shanghai freight company said Thursday that the cost of shipping a 40-foot container from China to the U.S. West Coast dropped nearly half in the previous four days, going from about $15,000 to just over $8,000. The spot rate for shipping to the East Coast had fallen by more than one-quarter from over $20,000 to less than $15,000.
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The plunge in spot shipping rates, the analyst said, is mainly caused by the imminent off-season and a reduction in manufacturing due to China's ongoing power crunch.
Multiple provinces across China are suspending factory production to ameliorate energy shortages or to meet the central government's energy consumption control targets. As production restrictions began to be implemented, scalpers dumped their hoarded container spots, contributing to the price tumble, the source from the Shanghai shipping company said. He added that the scalpers had to rush to sell off the spots between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7 before the start of the seven-day Chinese National Day holiday, which starts at the beginning of the month.
Experts are split on how shipping rates will develop in the near future. A research report by CSC Financial said shipping rates would stay relatively high in the next two weeks as U.S. ports stay congested and the gap between supply and demand remains large. The Tianfeng Securities analyst, however, predicts a decline in shipping rates, as export growth is expected to slow in the fourth quarter, the off-season for ocean freight shipping.
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