It’s not necessary to make the international trade segment notice that international shipments are facing a huge problem for more than almost one and a half years. Everyone in the whole world can become conscious of that when it’s hard to find some products in the supermarket and also because of the high prices that are scaring everyone.
Coming back to the question of this blog “Why are shipping costs so high right now?” we can summarize it in one word: COVID 19.
Since the beginning of the Covid 19 situation, the whole world has passed through profound changes. The obligatory lockdown in all countries. Social distancing. New health rules and new security procedures for all sectors. All of these affected the international trade directly and made the shipping costs shoot up. According to the article Higher Shipping Costs are Here to Stay, Sparking Price Increases – from Bloomberg Economic News, “the price for a 40-foot container is 25% to 50% higher than a year ago”, that increased the end price for all companies in international trade.
Shipping companies have faced numerous troubles and they have needed to follow some lockdown and health security policies. Because of that, companies in this segment halved the quantities of vessels and voyages along the major trade routes. The price of containers is increasing daily – Specialists are saying that will keep that way for a long period of time from now on -. It’s almost impossible to find one empty container, and congestion in ports around the world is one of the facts that is enhancing all of those problems.
According to the TIME all these problems can affect long-distance routes. For example, “making shipping from Shanghai to Rotterdam 67% more expensive than to the U.S. West Cost”.
