Big ships and long supply chains
Looking for alternatives to Suez It is certainly a very sensible move for Japanese companies to at least look into alternative routes, although they must remember that each of those will also have drawbacks, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, a professor of transportation policy and systems at Chubu University, told DW.
According to Hayashi, there are three alternative routes that are available to link East Asia with Europe, while a fourth is under development.
The first is a return to the journey around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, which was the route used before the 193-kilometer-long (120-mile) Suez Canal was completed in November 1869.
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Coronavirus conundrum: Containers still in short supply | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
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Coronavirus conundrum: Containers still in short supply
Demand for freight container transport has been soaring for about six months despite or because of the pandemic. The same can be said of cargo rates and the profits made by shipowners.
Container ships keep global trade going Since the third quarter, we ve seen an unparalleled rise in demand for container transport, Nils Haupt of container shipping company Hapag Lloyd told DW. It s an unexpected but gratifying development following 12 years of a business slump and the onset of the pandemic.
Haupt said shipping was hit hard in January and February 2020 as Chinese production ground to a halt, and so did exports to Asia. But then things took a turn, and demand took a dive in the US, Europe and South America, he recalled. Chinese production was restarted, but there wasn t a lot of transport activities our industry thought it would stay this way for weeks or even months.