03 Jan Global shipping container shortage
The global shipping industry is experiencing a container shortage caused by Covid-19 which first occurred back when the Covid-19 pandemic started in early 2019.
The current situation
National lockdowns in different country, shortage of workers, social distancing guidelines and goods production being stunted, saw a global shortage of products as they were unable to be loaded and shipped via containers as per usual.As a result of these changes shipping companies began reducing the number of cargo ships which were being sent out, which impacted the usual steady flow of imported and exported products which then lead to empty containers not being collected.
A shortage of containers is threatening Bangladesh’s export rebound amid a slowing of imports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carriers have been forced to manage the shortage by importing empty containers from the nearest hub ports and pushing importers for faster delivery of empty boxes.
The decline in imports amid a drop in domestic demand has created the shortage of containers, with some small carriers reportedly seeing up to a 35 percent deficit of the required boxes.
Container shortage is also highly influenced by the high quantity of imports that US (and Europe) gets from China.However, the Chinese imports from the West are not even marginally substantial.Getting the containers back to China is a major reason for high rates and container shortage.
The combined influence of these risk factors has impacted the availability of containers.And the vicious cycle continues : with a scarcity of containers,roll-overs are more common and the cost of ocean shipping has increased.
Containers are essential equipment for global trade. But even after almost two years since the pandemic began,the logistical nightmare continues to haunt the global supply chain.
Here are 5(Five) reasons for the shipping container shortage.
*Congested ports.*Changing demand of goods.*Declined number of available container.*Reduced number of operational vessels.*Delayed recovery post-pandemic.
The global container shortage will last until the end of 2022.