The lack of return goods
The health crisis due to the covid-19 pandemic has led to delays in arranging transportation between China and the U.S. and EU countries and a consequent increase in the cost of goods. The so-called shortage of return goods (empty containers) from the EU to China has caused an increase in prices in container freight transportation, compounded by additional costs called 'pick up charges'. By way of illustration, tariffs charged since November 1, 2020 have increased by about 25 percent considering the average of major European ports.
The "box that changed the world"
This is a situation that is constantly evolving and requires, in addition to reflections on policies that reduce the impact of these dynamics on the logistics chain at the level of prices and equipment, more attention from individual operators. The "box that changed the world," the container, is now, in short, disrupting it, causing thecost of products to rise. Something "never seen before" -thecoronavirus health emergency-according to major operators has raised the cost of shipping a container by 63 percent from 2019 to 2020 and by 227 percent from 2020 to early 2021.
Economy-world tries to restart
Therise in container freight prices is not a technical detail: invented in 1956, by the end of the century containers became the symbol of globalized trade, with logistics becoming both the medium and thermometer of globalization. In 2009, empty container ships remained docked in ports and costs had reached an all-time low. Now that we are facing the opposite phenomenon, it does not necessarily mean that the global economy is recovering. The world-economy stalled in the early 2020s, restarting it is not easy, and the part of the world that ships (the East) lacks empty containers, piled up in Western ports.
The shock and a fresh start
Why? Operators' accounts say supply chains have blown: consumption has adapted to the pandemic and life inside the home, labor organization at the ports has been affected by lockdown restrictions, and for some consumption that has grown, for others there has been a lack of demand. It is as if the assembly line of the factory-world has jammed, tipping all the balances: factories closed due to lack of raw and semi-processed materials, supply delays, and consequently prices soaring as the cost of transportation increases. During the coming months we will understand if the container 'disease' is just a new growth fever after the stop due to the pandemic or if, once again, inside those boxes we can read the development of the world economy and its new directions after the health, economic and social shock that occurred between 2020 and early 2021.
Data source: Aiom (Entrepreneurial Agency of Maritime Operators of Trieste).