In 2021, a turbulent year, the hearts of cross-border sellers are like waves on the sea, surging with the wind.
Maybe it’s Amazon’s massive account bans, or the increase in shipping costs caused by the epidemic, or Amazon’s policy updates... Each of these seems to be dancing on the sellers’ hearts, causing many sellers to joke to themselves: After working for Amazon, they have always had quick-acting heart-saving pills on hand. Not only are small sellers walking on thin ice, but big sellers are also in trouble. The performance of many big cross-border e-commerce sellers has suffered a heavy blow this year. On the evening of January 25, Tianze Information, the parent company of Youkeshu, which was involved in the Amazon account suspension incident, released a performance forecast, predicting a net loss of 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion yuan in 2021. It can be said that the loss was heavy.
Unlike the cross-border e-commerce which suffered a setback in sales, the performance of shipping companies has been improving during this year. Just recently, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings, one of the leading companies in the shipping industry, released an announcement of expected increase in performance for 2021, and its performance is very impressive. COSCO SHIPPING’s net profit in 2021 reached 89.28 billion yuan, an increase of nearly eight times year-on-year! It is learned that on January 24, China COSCO Shipping Holdings released its 2021 performance forecast. The company expects the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company to be approximately RMB 89.28 billion, an increase of approximately RMB 79.35 billion compared with the same period last year (the full-year net profit in 2020 was RMB 9.93 billion), an increase of approximately 799.3%. The announcement mentioned that in 2021, under the influence of multiple factors such as repeated epidemics, growing demand and limited supply, the global logistics supply chain continued to be challenged and impacted by complex situations such as port congestion, container shortages and inland transportation delays, and the supply and demand relationship of container transportation continued to be tense. During the reporting period, the average value of China's Export Container Freight Index (CCFI) was 2615.54 points, an increase of 165.69% year-on-year. According to the company's preliminary estimates, during the reporting period, the cargo volume (TEUs) of COSCO SHIPPING's container shipping business is expected to be approximately 26.912 million TEUs, an increase of approximately 567,500 TEUs compared with the same period last year, a growth of approximately 2.15%; the company's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) are expected to be approximately RMB 131.52 billion, an increase of approximately RMB 113.48 billion compared with the same period last year, a growth of approximately 629.4%. As of the end of 2021, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings expects the parent company's balance sheet to have undistributed profits of approximately RMB 27.78 billion, laying the foundation for the smooth implementation of cash dividends in 2021. Nowadays, under the influence of multiple factors such as repeated epidemics, growing demand and limited supply, the shortage of containers, port congestion, and soaring logistics costs have become old news, but they still affect sellers. However, unlike cross-border sellers who regard these factors as "tigers", shipping companies can make a lot of money under the circumstances of shortage of containers and port congestion. In addition to COSCO SHIPPING Holdings, I believe sellers should also remember the shipping company Evergreen that distributed huge year-end bonuses last month. Shipping company’s performance has skyrocketed, sellers: This is all our hard-earned money! It is learned that at the end of 2021, Evergreen Marine distributed year-end bonuses to employees, and the amount of the bonus reached more than forty times the employees' monthly salary! It is understood that due to the overseas epidemic and various severe weather factors, global container and shipping prices have soared since the beginning of 2021. As one of the giants in Taiwan's shipping industry, Evergreen Marine's after-tax profit in the first three quarters of 2021 was as high as NT$158.279 billion (equivalent to RMB 36.61 billion), and it is expected that the full-year profit in 2021 will exceed NT$200 billion (equivalent to RMB 45.708 billion). It can be seen from this that there is a reason why Evergreen Shipping gives its employees huge year-end bonuses at the end of the year. As soon as this news was released last month, many sellers in the seller communication group expressed envy about it. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group Some sellers said that shipping companies have made a lot of money in the past two years! A seller responded below: This money is all earned through the hard-earned money of us Amazon sellers. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group Some sellers also mentioned that almost all the money in the entire foreign trade industry was earned by shipping companies. ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group Some sellers even lamented: We Amazon sellers are just pure workers. We not only work for Amazon, but also for shipping companies. In short, it can be summed up in one sentence: Unlike the “thinning” wallets of Amazon sellers, shipping companies have really made a fortune in the past two years! It is also learned that according to Drewry’s latest "Container Forecast" report, in 2022, although the growth momentum of container demand is weakening, due to the epidemic and the subsequent supply chain crisis, the container shipping industry will still achieve higher profits, and it is very likely to achieve growth of more than 15% for the third consecutive year. Its full-year operating income is expected to exceed US$500 billion for the first time. Therefore, in 2022, there is a very high probability that the performance of shipping companies will continue to go against the current. As the Spring Festival approaches, many sellers are looking forward to the holiday. They also hope that, during this Spring Festival holiday, sellers can "celebrate the old year amid the sound of firecrackers, and let the spring breeze bring warmth to Tu Su, so that they can have a big sale in the new year!" They hope that in the coming year, even if freight rates cannot be reduced too much, at least they will not increase anymore! |
