We all know about the shipping container crisis and the shortage that the pandemic created. The tiny virus that changed the world, affected shipping container dramatically and as we could say in Alchemy terms , it turned Steel into Gold overnight. What we mean is that because of the shipping container crisis the price of shipping went from 2k to 10k in a matter of months, so basically price of a shipping container went form 2k to sometimes 7k for a 40ft CW or WWT unit. Which is of course way to much but they’re still in demand and very hot right now on the markets. Also the wait had extended for some items from a couple of months to 8-10 months and even a year.
So now roughly, about 16 months in the pandemic, global shipping is still in crisis, with an accumulation of backlogs that are threatening the peak holiday shopping period. We just try to be positive and hope that Santa will save us and still come in time this year. If we pay attention to the shipping container market it’s very clear that getting back to normal won’t happen any time soon, or at least not very soon. The shipping Container lifespan is about 15 years before they get recycled into low-cost, or at least it was low cost storage or building solutions.
Even the furniture giant Ikea has bought it’s own shipping containers, instead of just leasing them, trying to ease the logistical nightmare they’re going through worldwide, all shipments are delayed and hard to get units to use, but even so it’s hard to go through this crisis, and these rising costs are reflected in daily prices of all goods are now on the market.
Empties, as they’re called in the industry, that are in business right now are getting help up for long time at the ports and depots, in transit , waiting to be loaded which means more units are needed to be used for shipping stuff and avoid even more delays in shipments.
Price of new units increased not just because of the market price but also the raw materials, increased labor cost and of course the cost of the whole process of manufacturing a shipping container increased.
All experts in the industry cannot get to an agreement, they’re saying that even Nostradamus was able to predict things in the far future, but they can’t predict what’s going to be and when prices might go down. The only thing they agree on is that the crisis and this shortage is not going to be solved any time soon, so we have to put some projects on hold, maybe choose some alternatives for some house ideas, since all the pressure on businesses and end users will not stop some say till 2023?
People and business might need to rethink things since everything appears to become even challenging with the new prices and costs of shipping and shipping containers themselves.
