Container shipping rates from China to the United States have scaled above $20,000 per 40-foot box as rising retailer orders before the shopping season add strain to the global supply chains. The Delta variant outbreaks and the typhoons off of China’s coast in late July and this week has greatly decreased the world’s most important method of moving everything from gym equipment to furniture to car parts and electronics.
Philip Damas, Managing Director at maritime consultancy firm Drewy, stated, “These factors have turned global container shipping into a highly disrupted, under-supplied seller’s market, in which shipping companies can charge four to ten times the normal price to move cargoes. We have not seen this shipping in more than 30 years and I expect the extreme rates up till the Chinese New Year in 2022.
