As you may know, the current state of ocean transportation is being affected by critical capacity issues and steadily increasing pricing. Although all Asian Ports are impacted, the situation is most critical in Shanghai and Ningbo. Please Contact Us if you have any questions on the current market situation. (Read below for a brief explanation of the current situation and some helpful tips)... 
 
Leading up to the May 1 General Rate Increase (GRI), ocean carriers calling Shanghai developed large backlogs of freight that could not ship on scheduled vessels because of lack of space. Large volume shippers pushed production and shipping into April to reduce ocean freight cost increases. These shippers took up entire bookings, while other bookings were postponed due to lack of space.

 

The post-GRI expectation was that space would become available and the backlog would shrink. From what we see, the reality is large volumes of new freight continue to move and that allocations for backlogged containers haven't increased much. Griffin and our partners have been advised that all forwarders per-vessel load allocations have been cut in half by all carriers across the board.
 
While Griffin and our partners fight for every container space we can, the lines will continue to push for higher rates. The TSA has suggested that member lines implement a peak season surcharge of $400 per 40' container on August 1st. Our pricing team tells us that ocean lines Yang Ming and MOL have indicated that they will move the effective date forward to June 15th, with others likely to follow.