By Arthur Photo：diego_torres, Link：Pixabay

The current dilemma in the container transportation market is still hard to solve, driving the continuous increase in freight rates, and forcing the US retail giant Walmart to charter its own ships to ensure that there is sufficient capacity and inventory to meet the great sales seasons in the second half of the year.  Retail giants such as Home Depot and Amazon had done charter ships by themselves. According to reports, Walmart executives recently stated that the threat of supply chain disruptions and threats to sales is the main reason for Wal-Mart to charter ships to deliver goods to ensure sufficient inventory for the third and fourth quarters of the year, while coping with the expected rising cost pressures in the second half of the year. In Taiwan, it has also been reported that Yang Ming lines has obtained TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) chartered ships to transport thousands of containers of "whole-factory export" orders. TSMC has planned to build 6 large-scale wafer factories in Arizona, USA. Due to the bottleneck of the shipping market this year and the accuracy rate of only 35.6% of the ship schedule, those shippers with a large amount of cargo demand have to directly intervene in the shipping market. This is an indicator action! Many new cross-border businesses happen unintentionally because of market needs. No one knows if Amazon will take the opportunity to set up Amazon container line directly in the next step?!  While the shipping companies are excited to make huge profit, on the other end, could it be a warm-water boiled frog? They might miscalculate potential new competitors will appear and take some market shares in the future.

Freight forwarders pointed out European and American have alerted the red light on Ports congestion, and they eager to push to ship more containers before the October 1st, Golden Week  holidays in mainland China. At present, the manufacturing and retail industries are expanding their replenishment efforts, and even Christmas year-end demand is also increasing. Orders were placed early to grab the space. Driven by the scarcity of supply and strong demand, freight rates have risen to new highs month by month. Many shipping lines such as Maersk have successively increased various surcharges since mid-August. In September, the rate of increase in U.S. routes is expected to expand, from at least a thousand dollars. Maersk’s latest report points out that three to four weeks before the Golden Week holiday is the peak time, which has now caused delays in most major routes.  In brief, coupled with the recent reappearance of port congestion in the Asia-Pacific region, the impact of the Golden Week is expected to expand this year. The three most severely affected regions are North America, Asia-Pacific, and Northern Europe.　So the industry recommends to book a position as soon as possible! Ship as soon as possible if the order is completed. Don't expect to wait for a reduction in ocean freight rate before making a decision. If the goods are not sent out, the payment will not be received. In the end, it is just a pile of inventory.
   
Yesterday’s article reported the potential risk of crew strike crisis of South Korea’s HMM shipping line in which half of the crew’s departure to rival MSC. Today, September 1 is the final day of negotiations. If the negotiation breaks down, the result will be that half of HMM's ships will be suspended, which will also seriously affect the space and operation of other shipping lines in the same THE maritime alliance members. Ships could be parked in Busan Port, South Korea. This is undoubtedly adding to the chaos of the already chaotic shipping market.