The fact is historic in the very competitive world of the merchant navy: the French CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container ship owner, decided, on September 9, to freeze, until the 1er February 2022, its freight rates, the rates negotiated with its customers to transport their products on the seas of the globe.
This measure concerns spot contracts (rates negotiated for less than thirty days), and not long-term contracts, which cover nearly 80% of its activity. The next day, the German Hapag-Lloyd (world number five) in turn decided on a cap, without specifying its duration.
The group located in Marseille thus wishes “ favor a long-term relationship with its customers, in the face of an unprecedented situation for maritime transport “. Unheard of, indeed. Since mid-2020, trade has picked up sharply for several reasons: resumption of activity and consumption of durable goods often manufactured in Asia, restocking of stocks by manufacturers and distributors. Autumn and the beginning of winter are a tense period, marked by the approach of the end of the year holidays.
Tensions that should last for at least part of 2022
Freight rates have soared. “ The price of a container 40 feet between Shanghai and Le Havre is currently 7 500 dollars [6 350 euros], against 1 000 dollars before the start of the pandemic “, underlines CMA CGM. The increase is even stronger on the world’s main sea route, between Asia and the west coast of the United States. Especially at the basic rate, there are often additional high season surcharges or to secure port locations and unload their containers as quickly as possible. This can lead to a doubling of the price per container. Hapag-Lloyd assures that it will also contain these surcharges.
The sector today lacks everything, which explains the inflation in a market where it is the scarcity of supply that makes the price: container ships, “boxes”, port capacities to absorb the traffic of goods. , storage warehouses… The most glaring example: the port of Long Beach, south of Los Angeles (California), where nearly fifty container ships were waiting last week to unload their cargo. An unprecedented congestion which can also be explained by the productivity lag of American ports.
These tensions will last for at least part of the year 2022, say maritime transport experts. And more for the capacities of the container ship fleets. Since January, ship orders have been “ booming ” and their number is approaching three hundred, analysts at Italian shipping broker Banchero Costa have calculated. We will have to wait for the year 2023 to see the first deliveries. In particular for the twenty-four container ships of the Taiwanese Evergreen; or the twenty-two giants of the seas ordered in April by CMA CGM, after the nine super-giants delivered a year ago. Since May 2020, the Marseille shipowner has increased its container fleet by 780,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent, or approximately 38.5 cubic meters). Danish AP Moller-Maersk, Italian-Swiss MSC and Chinese Cosco are not to be outdone.
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