{"id":1808,"date":"2021-04-07T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2021-12-31T18:30:18","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T18:30:18","slug":"the-boc-blast-408-demand-boom-on-collision-course-with-ocean-transport-ceiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/the-boc-blast-408-demand-boom-on-collision-course-with-ocean-transport-ceiling\/","title":{"rendered":"The BOC Blast 408 – Demand boom on collision course with ocean transport ceiling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

URGENT NOTICE<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AVAILABLE OCEAN SPACE AND EQUIPMENT FROM ASIA TO USA IS NOW AT THE LOWEST LEVEL SINCE THE BEGINNING OF PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEY FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE GLOBAL SPACE PROBLEM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Suez Canal incident has caused massive delays, canceled sailings and increased port congestion throughout the world reducing global capacity by as much as 30% in the next two to three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Panama Canal low water levels has forced a reduction of weight capacity on vessels which lowers the volume of containers and products moving through the Panama Canal to the USA from Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. US has hit the lowest inventory levels ever reported by the Institute for Supply Management since the ISM index was established in 1997. There is now a huge push to replenish those inventories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. New Covid-19 Relief Package fueling spending power with a continued shift of buying goods instead of services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLEASE READ SUPPORTING ARTICLES BELOW:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand boom on collision course with ocean transport ceiling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Miller, Senior Editor, Freightwaves.com \/ American Shipper, April 2, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. containerized imports show no sign of letting up as the second quarter begins. On the contrary: Consumer demand is strengthening in the wake of fiscal stimulus and falling inventories that necessitate even more restocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest risk to Q2 container-shipping volume is not demand for goods, it\u2019s transport supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fallout from the Suez Canal accident will constrain vessel and container-equipment availability, leading to longer delays. By the end of this quarter, shoppers in America\u2019s stores could find more bare shelves. Online shoppers could increasingly see the words \u201cout of stock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventory restocking tailwinds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The positive data on demand keeps piling up. On Thursday, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Customers\u2019 Inventories Index (SONAR: ISM.MCIN) sank to 29.9 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis reading is the lowest ever reported since the sub index was established in January 1997,\u201d said Timothy Fiore, chairman of the ISM survey committee. \u201cFor eight months in a row, [the index] has been at historically low levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Amit Mehrotra, transportation analyst at Deutsche Bank, this falling index number \u201ctells us there is additional runway for restocking demand as retailers shift away from just-in-time inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehrotra expects cargo volumes to be \u201cstronger for longer\u201d as a result of both inventory restocking and increased consumer confidence driven by vaccines and stimulus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New retailer surveys at investment bank Evercore ISI paint a similarly bullish picture. As of Thursday, the Evercore retail sales survey index was at 67.5, up from an average of 47.1 in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evercore ISI\u2019s retailers pricing power survey index rose to 33.4, its highest level since December 2019. \u201cImproving demand with lean inventory\u201d drove the rise, said the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, if demand outpaces inventory replenishment, import demand grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bookings are still rising<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FrieghtWaves\u2019 SONAR platform features a proprietary index of shippers\u2019 ocean bookings. Bookings are measured on a 10-day-moving-average basis in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as of the scheduled date of departure. On Friday, the index for China-U.S. bookings (SONAR: IOTI.CHNUSA) hit a record high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nationwide index for inbound cargoes from all countries reached its highest-ever level on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index also tracks bookings seven days into the future. This forward view shows that a fresh all-time high is coming next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cargoes tracked by this data will not arrive at U.S. ports until late April or early May. In other words, as strained as ports are now, they face even greater pressure in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In California\u2019s San Pedro Bay, off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, there were 32 container ships at anchor on Thursday. That\u2019s back up above the average of 30.5 container ships per day that have been at anchor since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, up in Northern California, ship-position data showed 14 ships at anchor off Oakland on Friday. Anchorage levels there have been in double digits since February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suez Canal fallout is coming<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Suez Canal accident is putting more pressure on an already strained global system. The number of ships waiting to transit the canal peaked last Monday, at 367.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 80-90 ships have transited per day since the Ever Given was refloated, according to Leth Agencies. Prior to the accident, there were 52.7 per day (year to date).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even as transits surge, more ships keep arriving. As of Saturday, there were still 156 ships at anchor awaiting passage through the Suez Canal. That\u2019s about three times as many as normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After container ships transit the canal northbound, they head to Europe or the East Coast. \u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen is we\u2019re definitely going to see bunching at European ports,\u201d said Nathan Strang, global head of ocean freight at freight forwarder Flexport, during a webinar presented by Flexport on Wednesday. \u201cBunching\u201d refers to too many ships arriving at once, creating congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere may be reduced time in port to try to recover those schedules. That\u2019s going to lead to export cargo and equipment being left behind,\u201d said Strang. He added that \u201cthere\u2019s going to be delays for Europe and East Coast services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Curveball\u2019 to prolong situation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strang also speculated that carriers could \u201cblank\u201d (cancel) sailings on other routes so they could switch more ships to Asia-Europe services to counteract the accident fallout. \u201cCarriers may start blanking trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes to recover on the more lucrative Far East [to Europe] route,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anders Schulze, Flexport\u2019s global head of ocean freight, predicted that the Suez Canal accident would lead to \u201ca capacity reduction across the board, both in terms of vessel capacity and [container] equipment. There will be a domino effect in terms of vessels and equipment getting back to Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disruption at the Suez Canal and congestion at European ports will limit the number of empty containers transported back to Asia. This, in turn, will reduce the number of empty containers available to stuff with Chinese exports bound for the U.S. on trans-Pacific routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe equipment situation was already somewhat critical,\u201d said Schulze. \u201cWe were just seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with equipment availability and now this curveball will prolong the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further compounding challenges for shippers, at least one carrier \u2014 Maersk \u2014 has temporarily halted short-term bookings in the wake of the Suez Canal accident. As of Friday, Maersk\u2019s short-term bookings from Asia to both North Europe and North America remained suspended until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add it all up \u2014 rising consumer demand, very low inventories, a halt to some bookings, voyage delays, vessel and container capacity curbed by Suez Canal fallout \u2014 and it\u2019s a recipe for more bare shelves at American stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

URGENT NOTICE AVAILABLE OCEAN SPACE AND EQUIPMENT FROM ASIA TO USA IS NOW AT THE LOWEST LEVEL SINCE THE BEGINNING OF PANDEMIC KEY FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE GLOBAL SPACE PROBLEM 1. Suez Canal incident has caused massive delays, canceled sailings and increased port congestion throughout the world reducing global capacity by as much as 30%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-boc-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2165,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions\/2165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}