At present, container freight rates are struggling, liner companies have adopted the old method of "self-help", that is, to reduce the speed control capacity, although local routes began to stop falling, but the general situation is still worrying, this is not, in order to compete for the market, there are shipping companies began to fight price war.
On June 13, Maersk in a letter to customers, announced that by the end of this month will provide all Asia to the United States West Bank port of ultra-low freight rates, per FEU freight rate from 1200 U.S. dollars to 850 U.S. dollars, a reduction of 350 U.S. dollars.
On June 14, Maersk introduced a special price of Yantian-US $861 plus a document fee of US $70 per large box, while the spot market freight rate fell accordingly. On Monday, it was still at US $1150-1250. Now most of it has fallen to US $1000, while some companies are holding on to US $1100. And some industry insiders said that they have received Maersk's notice to reduce the cargo load of Shanghai, Qingdao and Shenzhen Yantian to 850 US dollars-it seems that Maersk has taken the lead in fighting the freight war.
Maersk said in a notice to customers: We understand the importance of cost saving strategies in 2023 fluctuations, we strive to meet your needs, and we are happy to provide your goods from Asia to the Americas with cost-effective logistics solutions.
Another super-large cargo company said that Maersk about 10 days ago had a limited introduction of the US-West per FEU of 850 US dollars, the company has grabbed several shipping spaces.
Some shipping operators said that Maersk this time because the shipping space loading rate is only 70%, only to introduce a deadline for large price reduction, it is estimated that until July to see the cargo situation to decide the rise or fall.
"Before this, Maersk also took the lead in launching many freight wars. The most influential one was that the freight rate of about US $800 per TEU on the European line fell below US $300. It was thought that Mediterranean Shipping Company, the latest largest shipping company in the world, would take the lead in reducing the price. Unexpectedly, Maersk took the lead. After Maersk collected and scraped a large amount of cargo, it was difficult for other shipping companies not to follow." The person added.
Freight forwarders pointed out that Maersk has made great efforts to promote online booking in recent years, hoping that shippers can book space directly from the company to improve the company's real income and prevent salesmen or freight forwarders from earning large price differences. The operation mode is similar to that of airline early bird tickets. Through AI management, when booking space reaches a certain number of computers, the price will automatically drop.
Freight forwarding company asked Maersk each voyage will give how many ultra-low price space, Maersk said it could not reply, the market spread each ship to about 100 ultra-low price space, but no one knows the exact number, can only go online to grab a look.
According to industry analysis, Maersk broke the tacit understanding of the industry and created an original sales model, so that after the container shipping market began to turn bad in the second half of last year, it could still keep the price range of about 100 US dollars in each period. Now the price difference can be raised to 3 to 400 US dollars, breaking the market stability overnight. If the July market peak season is not strong enough and fails to raise the freight rate, I am afraid there will be a crash crisis.
June 14 most shipping companies in the United States and the West have been given per large box of $1,000 freight rates, this month at any time may fall below $1,000, the future will not be expanded to the United States and other routes to be seen, but it is estimated that Maersk in the revenue accounted for a high proportion of the European routes, will not easily start the freight war.
The freight forwarder pointed out that the German shipping company Hapburg-Lloyd is also actively promoting online booking, the operation mode is similar to Maersk, the freight forwarder's operating space is gradually compressed.
Source: Ningbo Shipping