By Tina Wu   Photo：Valdas Miskinis ，Link：Pixabay

Ocean freight rate is predicted to continue its upward trend in the second half of 2021 especially for the Trans-Pacific route from East Asia to the U.S. Port congestion issues in the eastbound route stagnate as Covid-19 restrictions at Yantian port are likely to be prolonged while shipping demand from Asian main ports to the U.S. accelerates for the upcoming summer shipping peak season. Port of Los Angeles, whose container volume ranks the greatest in the U.S. for more than two decades, recently reached the port handling record of 10-million TEU in 12 months, making it one of the top 15 busiest ports worldwide. Compared with its pre-pandemic flow, the port now handles 50% more vessels daily in the past year, with 15 container ships per day. Strong import demand stimulated by the relaxing Covid-19 lockdown in the U.S. also raises the country’s import market prediction to 12.8 million TEU in the first half of 2021 and nearly 29 million TEU throughout the year, according to the latest Global Port Tracker report.

Hapag-Lloyd already announced the latest GRI of Asia-U.S. and Canada routes, up to USD 2400/ TEU and USD 3000/ FEU, another prohibited rise in shipping costs after the shipping container shortage for more than twelve consecutive months. Asian main ports to WCUSA and ECUSA rates now hit USD 12000/ FEU and USD 15000/ FEU respectively. More shippers are also estimated to charge record-high freight rates of eastbound routes since June. What’s worse, the instability of container flow caused by Yantian port’s shrinking export capacity and WCUSA’s import surge might paralyze the global shipping market toward its slow recovery despite the increase in global shipping equipment production. Chinese container manufacturer CIMC, whose global market share accounts for 42% as the biggest player, has been pushing its production to 400 thousand containers per month, namely making 5 million units per year. The skyrocketing containerized freight rates, however, are unlikely to be lowered although full production capacity of both containers and container ships is carrying out to cushion the chaos of global port congestion. The enhanced production plan of shipping equipment suppliers may boost the market supply to grow to the early 2022, but the Asia-U.S. ocean freight rates can hardly be adjusted to the normal level.