Recently, the Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk said that the freight rate fever has not shown any signs of cooling down this year. Global trade volume is expected to grow by 7-8% in 2021.
According to Reuters, Maersk recently raised the outlook for the shipping industry and forecast that the bets will continue to increase due to congested global supply chains.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused container shortages and congestion at ports amid high consumer demand. This has pushed freight rates to record levels.
“We have not seen any signs of the situation changing this year. Global trade volume is expected to grow by 7-8% in 2021. This means that consumer demand is very strong, combined with businesses increasing inventories.”, Mr. Soren Skou Maersk CEO commented.
Currently, up to 9 – 10% of containers worldwide are waiting to be unloaded. For example, 60 container ships at the port of Long Beach are located outside the port.
It is estimated that 1 out of every 5 containers shipped worldwide is Maersk. Maersk’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2021 is expected to reach $22-23 billion, up about 17% from the previous estimate.
In Vietnam, from the beginning of the year until now, the freight rates have increased gallopingly according to the general trend of the world. Especially, the route to the US and Europe sometimes increased by 5-10 times compared to the time before the pandemic, many businesses could not even book ships or rent containers.
However, recently, the Maritime Administration quoted a representative of CMA-CGM shipping company in Vietnam as saying that the company decided to stop increasing container freight rates due to the group’s brands (CMA CGM, CNC, Containerships, etc.) Mercosul, ANL, APL) operating from now until February 1, 2022.
The announcement of CMA-CGM not to increase prices is a very good sign, helping Vietnamese shippers to expect that the container freight market will ease in the near future.
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