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End May |
Dear Customers and Friends of Seajet! I am sure all of you already know that we are currently in an unprecedented situation in regards to shipping; especially in regards from Asia. After the nice rate declines of 2008 and 2009 as container demand dwindled first in the US and then in Europe and carriers were begging for cargo and undercutting each other to get it, the tables have now turned completely. The 2004 West Coast union lockout which resulted in delays of 2-3 weeks at its peak, pales in comparison to the current situation. In 2004 the problem was relatively short lived (no more than 2 months). However this time the carriers started to roll bookings in November and since then it has been getting worse each week as demand has also increased each week. Even so, there have been no announcements from the ocean carriers to add any significant supply to their fleets and equipment pools. The reason may be two-fold: Orders for ships that have been delayed are now starting to come on line which will add capacity without bringing parked vessels and equipment back into rotation. 2.)The sovereign debt crisis in Europe and some may say the US may still dampen a somewhat fragile economic recovery. Adding capacity now to capture the growing demand may not look so prudent anymore if the economy shows signs of weakness and slows demand later in the year. I am including a link http://www.jocsailings.com/content/?p=2491 to an article from the Journal of Commerce (JoC) in which a report by Axis Intermodal warns that carriers may be adding capacity through redeployment of laid up ships and new ones coming off line from the shipyards too quickly and the added capacity may exceed the anticipated growth of trade. I am not sure with which carriers they have spoken to and hope that the carriers are not reading this article. Until recently the main problem was that there were not enough ships to carry all the containers being booked. This problem is now being further compounded by container shortages. The average turnaround time of a container has been 50 days on average. However since carriers have slowed ships by an average of 5 knots the turnaround time has now increased to 70 days which has resulted in a lack of available equipment in Asia. Now to the money side starting with imports from Asia: The increases effective May 1st have been more or less contained at $ 400/40 to the West Coast and $ 600/40 to the East Coast. This refers to base ports. Inland destinations and MLB moves may be subject to higher increases as they slow the returns of empty equipment and require re-positioning to gateways. In some cases we have managed to keep them at even lower levels which is good news where there is so little (in January I warned of increases of $ 800/40 to the West Coast and $ 1,000.00/40 to East Coast). However back to the bad news: The Peak Season surcharge has been announced effective June 1st and June 15th respectively based on the carrier at the following levels: $ 320/20 400/40 450/40HC and 506/45. As a last comment on the Asia USA trade we have at times shipped freight for Boston to New York or other larger gateways and then trucked to its final destination from there. We understand that this adds to the cost. However the major gateways offer more options and thus increase the chances to secure space. Unfortunately even this is no guarantee to get space the first time around. In the Europe USA trade things have been difficult as well but small in comparison to the imports from Asia. However Maersk and NYK have just announced another GRI from Europe to the US. The numbers are as follows: Maersk effective July 1: $ 400/20 and 500/40 and 40HC Maersk effective October 1: to be announced Link http://www.joc.com/maritime/maersk-sticks-trans-atlantic-rate-hikes NYK effective July 1: $ 300/20 and 500/40 and 40HC Link http://www.jocsailings.com/content/?p=2493 The source for this information is the Journal of Commerce. As expected this is turning into another very trying year. We pledge to you that Seajet and its partners abroad will do anything in our power to keep pricing at a minimum while striving to move your freight without undue delays. And we will continue to be your source for information. We may not be able to help the situation but we will let you know what is going on. Thank you for your continued support and as always please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss the issues raised above. Sincerely yours,
Andreas Bauermeister,
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Seajet Express Inc., 46 Arlington Street, Chelsea, MA 02150 - Telephone 617.884.0991 - www.seajet.com |
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