There has been a notable decline in prices for containers shipped out of major Chinese ports, but the cost of shipping the containers remains high, according to a major seafood exporter.
The average price of a 40-foot container at the Chinese port of Ningbo was down 5.9 percent in July on the previous month, to USD 4,034 (EUR 4,046), according to Container xChange, an online trading and leasing platform. There was a 5.5 percent drop in the average price for a 40-foot container leaving in Shanghai, to USD 3,938 (EUR 3,950), while average prices in Tianjin were down 4.9 percent to USD 3,914 (EUR 3,926). The price for a container leaving Qingdao was the lowest in China in June, at USD 3,823 (EUR 3,828).
Chinese container prices remain high by the U.S. standards: the average price of a 40-foot leaving Miami, Florida, in July was USD 3,586 (EUR 3,597).
While the price of buying or renting a container is down, the cost of freighting hasn’t dropped to the same degree, according to Landy Chow, head of the southern China offices of Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trading firm Siam Canadian.
“The ocean freight to [the U.S.] East Coast is still USD 14,000 to USD 15,000 [EUR 14,050 to EUR 15,053], which is still high by any standard,” Chow said. Recent reductions in ocean freight costs were helpful, Chow told SeafoodSource, but prices remain “exuberant.”
The average price for leasing a container on China-U.S. routes fell 50 percent in July for a 20-foot container, while the average price of a 40-foot container was down 32.5 percent, according to Container xChange.
Photo courtesy of Mariusz Bugno/Shutterstock
