A huge pile up of fish cargoes at a Chinese port risks impacting shipments of frozen food across the country and beyond.
Hundreds of containers are being held up in Dalian, a major port for seafood imports, as local authorities test the fish for the coronavirus before allowing them to clear customs, according to several freight forwarders, consultants and shipping companies. That’s leading to scant availability of electric outlets to keep refrigerated containers, known as reefers, cold.
The shortage of plug points and dwindling space at the port has prompted shipping liners to cancel new reefer bookings into Dalian, and the congestion is now spreading to other refrigerated items like fruit and dumplings. It also means frozen containers are being diverted to other ports in China, leading to bottlenecks in Shanghai and Qingdao too.
Frozen Fish Pileup in China Threatens Global Supply Chains
Bloomberg 1/27/2021
(Bloomberg)
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A huge pile up of fish cargoes at a Chinese port risks impacting shipments of frozen food across the country and beyond.
Hundreds of containers are being held up in Dalian, a major port for seafood imports, as local authorities test the fish for the coronavirus before allowing them to clear customs, according to several freight forwarders, consultants and shipping companies. That’s leading to scant availability of electric outlets to keep refrigerated containers, known as reefers, cold.
Iron ore in 2021 is looking like… iron ore in 2020
The fate of the market for iron ore Australia’s most valuable export at $102bn in the 2019-2020 financial year is squarely in the hands of its largest customer, China according to ASX news site StockHead.
As the world’s largest producer of steel at 1.1 billion tonnes in 2020, China consumes massive volumes of iron ore, much of it shipped from Australia.
“China usually accounts for ~70 per cent of the world’s iron ore imports,” said analysts at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a December report.
This market share has risen to as high as 75 per cent in the first nine months of 2020, as China’s rapid post-COVID-19 economic recovery led it to suck in more imports of the reddish ore.
Capesize freight share in IODEX hits five-year low on excess tonnage, limited mineral supply
The Capesize freight rate as a percentage of the seaborne iron ore price has touched a record low, with a supply crunch for the mineral along with excess tonnage availability altering the correlation.
The share of the key Brazil to China Capesize freight rate in the benchmark S&P Global Platts IODEX 62% Fe CFR China index fell below 8% for the week ended Dec. 12 compared with the five-year average of about 20%.
A strong iron ore market has not really helped perk up Capesize freight rates. The Platts IODEX 62% CFR price has averaged $127.62/dmt in the fourth quarter compared with a year-to-date average of $106.38/dmt.