By Richie Lin      Photo  Lucas van Oort 

The danger of stagflation is lurking at the door of USA.

Ocean freight rate reference in week 42:

Following rate reference in week 42.

• Asia main ports to USAWC USD 7500~11000 per 40GP; 
• Asia main ports to USAEC USD 12500~14500 per 40GP;
• Asia main ports for IPI points of USA is USD 16500~18000 per 40GP. 

Please note above rate is only for reference, carriers might only give space for higher rate, which will be from USD 12,000~25,000 per 40GP for different destinations.

Rate of week 42 remains at lower level because the electricity shortage happening in China were not fully recovered until now. Chinese government has asked all power plants operate in full scale to provide enough electricity for the production of factories. However, the uncertainty and limit of power supply has made factories slow down their production, and consequentially reduce the space request in China, especially Yantian and Shanghai port. But the rate didn’t drop substantially because port congestions are also severe all around the world. And lack of chassis, drivers, trucks happening in USA also give carriers strong reason to keep high rate.

However, power limit in China will impact global supply chain severely if factories cannot recover fully production within a month. And the danger of inflation or even stagflation has made governments all over the world use political tools to reduce every factor which will influence consuming price. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the price of materials, gas, oil, steels have increased gradually because of lack of labors and transportation cost. Global economy is trickling down like water, any small drops will combine to a big flood which impact the end-users. The inflation rate is USA recently is already around 5% which is dangerous for economy. And worst of all, it happens stagflation when people stop buying unnecessary products but the price is still higher because of higher materials and transportation cost.

Airfreight market rate in Week 42:

The airfreight is updated each week to match the market situation. 

The following market rate for your reference. 

• PVG/SZX/HKG/TPE to LAX USD 12.0/kg, 
• PVG/SZX/HKG/TPE to ORD USD 12.5/kg, 
• PVG/SZX/HKG/TPE to JFK USD 14.0/kg. 

Airfreight rate will keep in high ground because airlines canceled many flights to China because of strict regulations of Covid-19.

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