Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr V
I saw mention of this development this weekend too, and the article noted that shipping prices had already "skyrocketed".
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That's kind of surprising since there is a glut of shipping space (container loads) for the last year. Shipping prices have been dropping and the demand has also been dropping. This is one of the reasons that Hanjin got into so much trouble was these two factors.
China's slowing economy is also a problem. Not as many goods in or out in the last year. There are over 170 large container ships in a port in Malaysia that have been mothballed because of lack of work.
Short term rates may go up, Hanjin has raised theirs to get back some cash flow. But they are still way under what they were 18 months ago.
The other interesting side effect is that for the last two years you could purchase containers fairly cheaply. You may have seen lots of articles about people building house, offices, etc out of containers. This was to ease the glut of non active containers, since if they are not on a boat full of goods, they are empty in your storage yards costing you money. The availability of containers is slowing and the cost is slowly going back up. If you were planning to get containers and covert them into robot spaces the time is now.
A second wave of problems is that the containers got offloaded, but the trucking and train companies are not picking them up, since they are worried about getting paid for transport. It will take some time to get that sorted out. But presently there are truckers looking for loads from the major ports.
It should get sorted out by mid-November when all the Christmas goods start showing up in full force in warehouses.
The joys of living in a world economy!!