Overcapacity in the shipping industry remains unsolved

Recently, COSCON announced that from September 1, 2013, it will increase the Far East-to-South America East Route (including cold box) tariffs, raise the price of the 20-foot TEU by 750 US dollars, and increase the US$1,500 per TEU standard container and high box; The price increase is 50% higher than the price increase plan announced on August 7. Prior to this, Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, announced that it will increase its freight rates from Asia (excluding Japan) to Northern Europe from September 1.

In addition, the shipping companies that announced the increase in Asia-Europe freight rates in September include France’s CMA, OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, Hanjin Shipping and the Mediterranean. Shipping (MSC) and so on.

According to industry sources, the main reason for this round of centralized price hikes is that August to October is the traditional peak season for shipping. Shipping companies will raise prices at this time of the year, but judging from the situation this year, After the general rise, the pressure from the market will eventually drop, and it is estimated that this time will not last.

Affected by the weak global economic situation, China’s foreign trade performance has not been satisfactory. Even in June, both imports and exports have seen negative growth. The growth rate of container transportation was sluggish. Although the freight rates of the US East and West Coast routes rose by 2% to 4% respectively over the same period of last year, due to the heavy weight of the European line dropping by 25%, the composite index of container exports fell in the first half year from the same period of last year. 11%.

The fluctuation of freight rates was particularly evident in the second quarter. The Shanghai Container Freight Index fell from 1,245 points in the first quarter to 927.5 points in the second quarter.

The CITIC Securities Research Report pointed out that in the first half of 2013, the shipping prices of the three shipping sub-industries both experienced a decline of more than double digits. It is expected that most shipping companies will report losses in their half-yearly reports, and some companies will report losses for the first time since listing. China COSCO is still selling assets to reduce losses, and its first-half results continue to lose money. The company explained that there is no real improvement in the imbalance between supply and demand in the international shipping market, and the container and dry bulk shipping market continues to be sluggish. The freight rates have fallen year-on-year and are at a low level.

Since July, the liner companies began to implement the peak season freight rates, and the price increases were relatively large. The container freight rates from Shanghai to Rotterdam once soared by 165%. However, due to lack of fundamental support, high freight rates have not been sustained. Under the dual forces of the shipping season and the market downturn, freight rates have been falling back at the end of the month and becoming the norm. A shipping industry analyst told this reporter that in terms of the current economic situation, the demand for the container shipping market in the second half of the year will not change much. The situation in the next year may be better than this year. A few days ago, Maersk will reduce its global volume growth forecast from 2% to 4% to 2% to 3% this year. In yesterday’s performance conference, Wu Ke, President of Maersk East China, acknowledged to reporters that this was because of the shipping market. The situation is expected to decline. As of the end of July 2013, the capacity of the global container fleet reached 16.977 million TEU, which was a year-on-year increase of 5% from July last year. This year's increase is basically an oversized ship of 8000 TEU or more, which accounts for more than 90% of the new capacity. Absolute advantage. Wu Hao also told reporters that since Alpherliner's report expects capacity to increase by 9.5% this year and the company expects volume growth to be only 2% to 3%, he believes that excess capacity will continue. In this regard, Maersk will continue to adopt slow voyages, idle capacity, dismantling of old ships, and cancellation of routes to cut capacity.