2022 kicked off with the usual momentum, with full containers leaving Asian ports ready to meet Lunar New Year demand. However, those containers arrived at the port, were unloaded, their cargo distributed and now they are nothing more than large empty boxes waiting to be picked up. This inefficiency of the global logistics chain marks the first disruption of the year, with available containers hindering the flow and increasing rates. At least this is evidenced by the January 2022 edition of the xChange monthly report, which compiles container freight rates in the main markets.

New year, same disruption

In this third year of the pandemic, mobility restrictions are stricter than ever, but consumption does not let up. That is precisely what the January xChange report reflects: an increase in tariffs between Christmas and the last week of January, a period in which Chinese factories close for their traditional holidays related to the celebration of the Lunar New Year.

Therefore, according to the xChange report, and in accordance with industry analyses, the last week of January would have marked the highest point of rates for the first four months, with decreases of around US$100 per container in the values ​​to count from the first week of February onwards. However, values ​​of 40-foot containers sailing from Shanghai are around US$5.400; US$5.600 departing from Ningbo and US$5.350 from Qingdao.

The same upward trend in January can be seen in ship leasing charges from China to North America, which marked an increase of 17% in the first month of the year; as well as the container availability index (CAx), whose values ​​in January 2022 are double those of just three years ago.

India gets more expensive

Since the pandemic exposed the fragility of depending on a single supplier in Asia, India has been positioning itself as a viable alternative for large volumes of products. However, from January 2021 to January 2022, the prices of container freight rates show increases between 35% and 55%, depending on the port and route. The same happens with the CAx, which indicates that the containers are being repositioned in this port, widening the gap between boxes that enter and those that leave, showing the highest values ​​since 2019.

Down in the USA, Europe

Across the map, in the Western Hemisphere, the United States is seeing declines in freight rates for both 20-foot and 40-foot containers, all while the country records record inbound containers. Ports continue to struggle to balance high import/low export, and the CAx index reflects this.

In Europe, the downward trend in rates also continues in ports such as Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp, where the containers also hope to return to Asia, where the Chinese New Year has factory and port workers disconnected from the reality of the rest of the world. When China returns from vacation, it will be necessary to see how the lost fluidity of the logistics chain is resolved and the luck that awaits the other 10 months of the year.