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KUALA LUMPUR – This year’s peak season cargo surge is expected to be highly chaotic for global supply chains compared with 2021, a survey of 200 industry players showed.
The latest Container xChange review, titled the xChange Industry Pulse Survey, found that 51% of respondents expect the 2022 iteration of the peak season to be “worse” than last year while 26% predicted this year’s peak season would be less chaotic than in 2021, and 22% expect the level of “chaos” to be the same.
The peak container shipping season traditionally occurs in the third quarter of each year, as retailers build up inventories ahead of the fourth quarter holiday and shopping season.
Last year, cargo surges resulted in record container shipping freight rates, delivery delays, port congestion and compromised reliability of container shipping services.
In terms of container sourcing strategy in 2022, when compared to pre-pandemic times, 56% said they had been “growing networks”, 38% said they had agreed to “long-term contracts” and 25% said they had followed a “multi-tender strategy”.
Some 37.5% of respondents said they were ensuring clients received enough inventory by “shipping early” in 2022, 25% were “using alternative shipment routes” and 18.8% were contracting long-term slot agreements with carriers.
Surprisingly, 62.5% said they were still relying on the spot market or doing nothing specific to ensure shipments reach clients.
Meanwhile, 58% of respondents reported that Covid-19 lockdowns in China had made it “hard to produce/ship as much product as planned”, suggesting that cargo backlogs and unsatisfied demand are building as China’s zero-Covid-19 strategy limits exports to Europe and the US.
Elsewhere in the survey, top challenges identified by respondents aside from China’s ongoing lockdowns were container availability, depots being full, inflation, the Russia/Ukraine crisis and rising prices.
Container xChange, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, is a marketplace and technology infrastructure provider for container logistics companies.
Previously, The Vibes reported that the global supply chain was choked with delays in shipment deliveries as maritime congestion is exacerbated by China locking down major cities as part of its zero-Covid-19 policies.
With the lockdowns of two of its largest cities – Beijing and Shanghai – the number of container vessels waiting outside Chinese ports has increased by 195% since February, according to data from Windward’s Maritime AI platform. – The Vibes, May 19, 2022