It's already the year 1202, why are there still so many magical things?

This morning, WeChat groups were full of messages and Weibo was also very lively. It turned out that the "US$0 purchase" scene reappeared. Suddenly, time seemed to be pulled back to 2020, a year full of surprises and fears. And all this started with an election.

    ▲ The picture comes from Weibo

It has been two months since the US election, but this "war without gunpowder" is still going on in the United States.

Clashes break out at US Capitol, curfew imposed in Washington

Trump has always been a person who brings his own topics and traffic. This morning, he was on three hot searches in a row, successfully attracting the attention of the public.

    ▲ The picture comes from Weibo

The large-scale riots triggered by the death of a black man seem to have happened just yesterday, and now the scene has reappeared. This time, the protesters directly broke into the US Capitol, and the joint session of Congress was forced to be interrupted.

    ▲ The picture comes from @Russia Today RT

According to reports, at around 2:45 a.m. local time on the 6th, when the U.S. Congress was certifying the electoral votes of various states, protesters supporting Trump broke into Congress and tried to prevent lawmakers from certifying the election results. The protesters who rushed into the Capitol clashed with the police on a large scale, and Congress was forced to blockade and lawmakers evacuated urgently.

    ▲ Picture from @China Daily

During the conflict, a woman was shot and killed in the Capitol. The scene inside the Capitol was even more chaotic, with a large number of demonstrators rushing into the building, wilfully destroying it, and the following "0 yuan purchase" images appeared.

At this time, Trump spoke to the demonstrators in front of the White House, saying that he would "never admit defeat."

Affected by this, at around 3 p.m. that day, the Capitol Police began to organize the emergency evacuation of members of Congress. Washington Mayor Bowser ordered a curfew from 6 p.m. that day to 6 a.m. on the 7th , and required that no one should go out except those who agreed with the mayor or were engaged in necessary work.

No one could have predicted that the outcome of a world-renowned election would be so absurd. Due to the outbreak of the conflict, Chinese cross-border sellers are also having a hard time.

In the seller communication group, a seller on the US site said that today's order volume has begun to decline , and speculated that it was related to the outbreak of conflict in the United States.

    ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group

In addition, there are sellers who complained: more and more money is being spent on advertising, but orders are stable and may even decrease.

    ▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group

In recent days, the continued decline in the US dollar exchange rate has made many cross-border sellers miserable. Some sellers speculate that the outbreak of the conflict may aggravate the trend of the US dollar exchange rate decline. The exchange rate decline + the decline in sales may make life even more difficult for sellers.

In fact, it is not only the situation in the United States that is tense, the shadow of the spread of the new coronavirus is lingering for a long time, and recently, several countries have declared a state of emergency!

Britain, Japan re-enact state of emergency

Since last year, the epidemic situation in the UK has continued to worsen and lockdown measures have been tightened again.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on the 4th local time that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that from January 5th to mid-February, the whole of England will be subject to the first lockdown similar to last March , with most schools and universities closed and switched to online teaching. Residents are required to stay at home except for medical treatment, food shopping, exercise and work that cannot be done at home.

The situation in Japan is just as bad!

On the 6th local time, the number of newly confirmed cases in Japan exceeded 5,000 for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with the ever-expanding scale of infection, the Japanese government decided to re-activate the state of emergency in the capital and three prefectures on the 7th.

According to Japanese media reports, the Japanese government will officially issue an "emergency declaration" for four places on the 7th, which will last for about a month. It is reported that this "emergency declaration" mainly focuses on shortening the evening business hours of restaurants. In addition, the government also calls on companies to implement remote work and staggered attendance, and calls on the public to reduce non-emergency and unnecessary outings.

As the epidemic recurs, the logistics situation will deteriorate under the lockdown. From 2020 to the present, the logistics problems that have been a headache for sellers have not shown any signs of improvement, but have become more serious.

Freight rates soar and container shortages are severe

According to the notice issued by the shipping companies, following the increase in surcharges in mid-December, some shipping companies began to implement the general rate increase (GRI) from January 1. Starting from January 1, 2021, a comprehensive rate increase surcharge ranging from US$1,000 to US$1,200/FEU will be charged on the trans-Pacific route.

At the same time, prices of some routes also began to increase after New Year's Day. For example, the price increases on routes such as the US and Europe and the Mediterranean ranged from 10% to 23% .

Some sellers said that the price of a cabinet was 900 yuan in August and September last year, but now due to the shortage of cabinets, it still costs 4,300 yuan. Foreign trade people are now struggling to hold on.

Not only have freight rates skyrocketed, but container shortages and congestion have also gradually become the norm.

It is understood that the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach Terminal are currently extremely congested, many containers have been waiting for berths, and a container ship has been anchored for two weeks.

A seller said that nowadays, European iron style and American Shanghai style cars have to be booked by lottery one week in advance, and payment must be made immediately after booking.

No warehouse space, no cabinets, rising freight rates, a series of unexpected events have caught many sellers off guard. Once the goods cannot be shipped, they will face a shortage of goods, which is not worth the loss.

According to relevant sources, the continued high freight rates and container shortages will not recover until the second half of 2021. Therefore, sellers must plan ahead for this year's stocking and operation plans in order to avoid out-of-stock situations in the face of long-term logistics difficulties.

There are so many things happening at the beginning of 2021. It seems that 2021 is bound to be an extraordinary year. What other magical things do you think there are? Feel free to leave a message in the comment area to share~