Affected by the continued strong demand for international container transport, the global spread of COVID-19, the obstruction of overseas logistics supply chain, the serious congestion of ports in some countries, and the blockage of the Suez Canal, the imbalance between supply and demand of transport capacity in the international container shipping market, the tight transport capacity of container ships, and the high prices in many links of the shipping logistics supply chain have become a global phenomenon.
However, the upward trend that lasted for 15 months began to fall back in the fourth quarter of 2021. Especially in the middle of September 2021, due to the power shortage, a large number of factories restricted the use of electricity. In addition, the high sea freight prices forced foreign trade enterprises to reduce shipments, and the increase of container export volume fell from the high point. The anxiety of the industry that "it is difficult to obtain one container" took the lead in alleviating, and "it is difficult to obtain one cabin" also tended to ease.
Most of the upstream and downstream enterprises of the container industry have made cautious and optimistic expectations for the market this year, and judged that 2022 will not be the same as last year, and will enter an adjustment period.
Industry returns to rational development
"In 2021, China's container international transportation market has seen a historical 'ceiling', experiencing an extreme situation of soaring orders, high prices and short supply." Li muyuan, executive vice president and Secretary General of the China Container Industry Association, explained that the so-called "ceiling" phenomenon did not appear in the past decade, and it is difficult to reappear in the next decade.
However, this crazy trend has been contained. "Since the fourth quarter of last year, the situation of 'one box is hard to find' has been basically alleviated." Huang Tianhua, President of China Container Industry Association, said at the press conference on the operation of the container industry in the first half of 2022 that in the first half of 2022, the container production volume was about 1.62 million standard containers, a year-on-year decrease of 40.9%. The industry as a whole returned to a rational and historical normal level.
The recovery of container industry is closely related to the recovery of transportation. In the first half of the year, against the background of multiple domestic epidemics and the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, China's multimodal transport withstood the test. The continuous growth of sea rail transport and the rapid recovery of China Europe trains played an important supporting role in ensuring the stability of the international and domestic industrial chains and supply chains, and accelerating the resumption of production, business and market.
According to the data released by the Ministry of transport, in the first half of the year, China's container throughput reached 140 million standard containers, with a year-on-year increase of 3%; Among them, the throughput of foreign trade containers exceeded 85 million standard containers, with a year-on-year increase of 6.1%.
"In general, with the joint efforts of all parties and the implementation of various measures such as ensuring smooth logistics, the main indicators of transportation in the first half of the year gradually recovered after a short fluctuation in April. In particular, the freight volume basically recovered to the level of the same period last year, the port's foreign trade container throughput maintained growth, and the traffic investment and express business volume returned to the normal development track." Shu Chi, spokesman of the Ministry of transport, said.
"In the medium and long term, it is expected that the container transportation of China's major ports will gradually slow down from the medium to high speed growth, and the competition among ports will also intensify." Said Xie Gang, Professor of the prediction science research center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Sea rail combined transport grows against the trend
Data show that in the first half of the year, the total cargo throughput of ports in China was 7.58 billion tons, a year-on-year decrease of 0.8%, and the cargo throughput of foreign trade was 2.27 billion tons, a year-on-year decrease of 3.7%.
In the first quarter, the port container transportation was affected by the traditional off-season of the Spring Festival and the epidemic. The freight rate began to drop, the growth rate generally slowed down, and the foreign trade container space was vacant. All the major coastal port enterprises said that under the epidemic situation, the road collection and distribution were seriously blocked, the overall transportation cost was significantly increased, the supply chain was not smooth, the factory shipment was reduced, the container trucks were restricted from entering and leaving the port, the container supply was tight, the shipping companies temporarily changed their routes, and the differences in epidemic prevention policies across the country brought great challenges to the port production organization. Since May, with the weakening of the impact of the epidemic, the sea rail intermodal transport business of major ports has recovered rapidly, which not only made up for the losses in the first quarter, but also increased significantly in most ports year on year.
"In contrast to the decline in port cargo throughput, China's port container throughput and sea rail combined transport volume showed stable growth in the first half of the year." Li muyuan pointed out that the average year-on-year growth rate of sea rail combined transport volume of coastal ports in the first half of the year was close to 20%. Several ports greatly affected by the epidemic have also achieved counter trend growth in sea rail combined transport, such as Shanghai port, Yantian port, Dalian port and Guangzhou port. The sea rail combined transport volume has increased significantly.
According to the statistics of the China Container Industry Association on the 11 major coastal ports of sea rail intermodal transport, the major coastal ports have completed 4.217 million standard containers of sea rail intermodal transport, and the proportion of sea rail intermodal transport in the port collection and distribution has generally increased, up to 23.6%.
"Many ports are affected by the epidemic. Although the growth rate of container throughput has slowed down or remained basically balanced year on year, the year-on-year growth rate of sea rail intermodal transport mostly exceeds double digits." Li muyuan said that the epidemic has affected the road collection and distribution, and the advantages of railway collection and distribution have been highlighted, which once again proves the important role of multimodal transport in the safety and stability of China's logistics chain and supply chain.
At the end of 2021, the general office of the State Council issued the work plan for promoting the development of multimodal transport and optimizing and adjusting the transport structure (2021-2025). In the first half of this year, various coastal ports have taken sea rail intermodal transport as the key work and main focus of port upgrading and development, and achieved fruitful results.
China Europe train shows resilience
A few days ago, China's first China Europe Express line, the China Europe Express (Chongqing), broke through 10000, which means that China Europe Express has become an important bridge for the cooperation and development between China and Europe. It also marks new progress in the high-quality construction of the "the Belt and Road" and in ensuring the stability and smoothness of the international supply chain.
According to the latest data of China National Railway Group Co., Ltd., from January to July 2022, a total of 8990 China Europe trains were operated and 869000 standard containers were sent, up 3% and 4% respectively year-on-year. Among them, 1517 trains were opened and 149000 TEUs of goods were sent in July, with year-on-year growth of 11% and 12% respectively, all hitting a record high.
Under the severe impact of the global epidemic, the container industry not only strives to ensure the efficiency of port transport and expand rail sea intermodal transport, but also actively maintains the stability of the international industrial chain and supply chain through the increasingly mature China Europe Express.
"During the low period in the first half of this year, the number of China Europe trains remained above 1100, which is a high level in the past three years. In May and June, China Europe trains started to stand at a historical high of more than 1300. In July, China continued to recover growth and set a record high. More than 1517 trains were operated, and the container traffic volume increased by 14.9% month on month." Introduction by Li muyuan.
China Europe train platforms and operating enterprises generally said that after the May Day holiday, the freight volume of China Europe trains gradually recovered, and the total market demand has basically recovered. From April to may, the congestion of European ports also prompted some lost customers to return to China Europe Express.
"We can see that the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on China EU trains is gradually decreasing, and the resilience of China EU trains is beginning to show. As an emerging market of China's international logistics channel, the rigid demand of China EU trains is becoming more and more clear." Li muyuan said.
