Cargo ship backlogs at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have hit record high as the supply chain crisis continues. On Monday, Oct. 18, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported [.]
The White House announced Wednesday, Oct. 13, that Walmart, UPS and FedEx are moving to work more shifts to deal with global supply disruptions that have contributed to a surge in inflation. The [.]
The price of moving a 40-foot container from China to the West Coast has jumped to almost $16,000 – a tenfold increase from pre-pandemic costs – as surging shipping prices and bottlenecks at [.]
Coronavirus: shipping rates to stay at ‘unprecedented’ levels until pandemic brought under control
The coronavirus pandemic has driven shipping costs to record levels, with trade disruptions throwing global container flows into disarray
Despite efforts to boost container production in China, some experts estimate shortages and port congestion could stretch on until early 2022
Synopsis
Airfreight rates to North America from Hong Kong have risen as much as 24% this year after more than doubling in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic increased demand for electronics goods like gaming consoles and laptop computers as more people were forced to work from home.
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Seafreight costs have surged, making air freight more competitive.
Shipping bottlenecks and spending by stuck-at-home consumers will help drive increased demand for air cargo until mid-2022.
And with thousands of passenger planes, which usually carry about half of global air freight, still grounded, capacity constraints will continue to push up prices, according to Tim Scharwath, the chief executive officer of DHL Global Forwarding, Freight.