At a time when carriers are coming in for mounting criticism over everything from rising ocean freight costs to charges for detention and demurrage and alleged manipulation of vessel-sharing arrangements, a flip side scenario has emerged.
According to research conducted by FraunhoferCML and Container xChange, respectively logistics and containerisation intelligence companies in Germany, an acute Covid-related rotation lag has developed in the box supply chain.
According to their research, empty containers spend up to 45 days at depots before being returned to the system.
Worst of all is China where load-ready boxes are said to be sitting idle for two months at a time.
The US has also been mentioned in this regard, with reports that boxes are stuck at depots for as long as 66 days.
The research clearly illustrates that Covid-induced capacity hiccups have disturbed the balance between box rotation and availability.
In its reading of the findings by FraunhoferCML and Container xChange, ocean freight analysis consultancy Sea-Intelligence has been quoted by Singapore news site Splash 247 that “the skewed geographical development of the demand recovery means a rapidly escalating equipment imbalance issue, which becomes especially acute for North America and Asia”.
Sea-Intelligence emphasised that it was, relatively speaking, easy to adjust capacity when demand changed, but it was not possible to rapidly shift empty container across the world.