Container shortage hits US-SA trade flows

A SHORTAGE of containers to ship American goods overseas is hitting the SA trade along
with the other seafreight export channels out of the US.
The lack of boxes hit press pages across the US recently, even taking space in the
prestigious finance publication,
The Wall Street Journal.
The cost of shipping a forty-foot (12-metre)
equivalent unit (FEU) from the US west coast to China has jumped-up by 20% in the past
year, said the report. “And this,” it added, “has exacerbated a shortage of boxes already created by an American
consumer slump caused by the US sub-prime crisis that has reduced the number of containers coming into the country.” That this shortage was
having an effect on US-SA trade flows was first brought to FTW’s attention by Richard
Rattray, MD of Concordia International Forwarding
Corporation in SA. “There’s no doubt it’s
hitting SA cargo,” he said. “We’re battling to get containers in the US – and there’s a particular shortage of specialised equipment.”
Corinne French of United Maritime Logistics was in full agreement. “The majority of carriers
are totally out of all sizes of containers. I understand that this is very frustrating for our
customers and we’re doing our utmost to ensure that we get equipment as soon as it
becomes available.” She said MSC was doing its
best to minimise the damage. “But in some instances our customers are incurring
additional costs because of the repositioning of containers in order to meet deadlines.”
Rattray also pointed out that it was having a direct impact on seafreight – with
the additional problem of the shipping lines’ schedules being disrupted. One of the major shipping lines on the SA-US trade,
Safmarine, confirmed the problem.
When asked if the container/equipment shortage
in the US was affecting the US-SA trade, Safmarine Incorporated president John
Boudreau told FTW this was indeed the case, affecting a number of shipping lines and
trades. Boudreau added that
available equipment was being allocated to Safmarine customers with whom the
company had built strong, long-lasting relationships.
The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is
being equally careful in its allocation of available boxes, according to the line’s US trade
manager, Zane van Zyl. “We’ve felt this shortage
across all the trades,” he said. “SA as well as the others.” He also agreed with a
statement by Philip Damas, the head of container research at Drewry Shipping Consultants
in London , who pointed out that there were some places – “particularly in the Midwest”
– where there was a complete lack of containers.
“Yes,” said Van Zyl, “the shortage for MSC is mainly in the Gulf and the Midwest.”
To overcome the problem, MSC has implemented a
new programme to collect containers for these areas. “But,” said Van Zyl, “that
means repositioning costs, and we are helping to recoup this with contributions from clients.”