The worldwide container crunch is continuing to weigh heavily on the bottom line of shippers as the unavailability of boxes and related costs mount up while freight forwarders increasingly find themselves unable to cope with rising costs and crippling delays.
Speaking to a British supply chain portal, one forwarder didn’t mince his words when he summed up the situation, resorting to expletives as he did so.
Such is the frustration as the backlog for booked containers builds, with current container availability battling a two-week lag, at least, and almost no carrier space to be had until the middle of October.
Not only that, but carriers are still charging for detention and demurrage (D&D).
It comes as no surprise, then, that a furious forwarder said “container haulage is f****d!”
Speaking from the UK, it has also emerged that forwarding costs of late have gone up by 300 pounds (R6099).
Saddled with similar storage charges across the Atlantic, 76 agricultural and industrial exporters in the States have written to President Joe Biden to intervene in week-long delays for containers, related costs and loss of income.
This comes as US shippers and truckers are still awaiting feedback from a Federal Maritime Commission undertaking to take action against the liner industry for D&D charges.
Further adding to the spectre of spiralling costs for shippers is the news earlier this week that the world’s leading carrier has sold its box manufacturing business, Maersk Container Industry, to China International Marine Containers.
