Shipping costs have started to rise for three consecutive times?! Frequent customs inspections?

Both the US East and West routes continued to rebound last week, with freight rates rising by more than 8%, the largest weekly increase in two years . In the past year or so, shipping prices have plummeted by nearly 95%! The freight rate on the US West route fell from $15,485/FEU to $1,164/FEU, and has rebounded to around $1,668/FEU after three consecutive weeks of recovery. The ups and downs are really wild.

Has the current round of shipping prices hit the bottom? This question still needs to be examined from the real reasons for the increase.

The soaring freight rates in the past two years are nothing more than the high demand for shipping and the inability of shipping capacity to keep up. I have talked to you many times before about shipping capacity. There is no shortage of shipping capacity this year. Many of the cargo ships ordered by shipping companies and top sellers around 20 years ago will be delivered in the near future. The problem lies in the demand side. The US consumer index did not rebound significantly in March, and consumers still maintain a cautious attitude towards future consumption. Therefore, the real demand does not match the current surge in shipping freight rates. So what factors are driving such a surge in shipping prices?

Shipping companies that have tasted the sweetness of the market have been hit hard this year, and they are obviously not at ease. The driving force behind the recent recovery in shipping prices is still the market maker shipping companies. Last month, internal information from shipping companies revealed that the market maker was planning to raise the shipping price, on the one hand to stop the long-term plunge in shipping prices, and on the other hand to increase the base for the renewal of the long-term contract price for the US route at the end of April. Internal information revealed that the spot price at that time was about US$1,050/FEU, and the collective goal of shipping companies was to raise it to more than US$1,500.

In addition to the actions of the shipping companies, this wave of freight rates was also due to the adjustment of Chinese sellers' inventory for the May Day holiday. The May Day goods that were shipped in advance just happened to be on the way, which contributed to the increase in freight rates.

In addition to the overall surge in ocean freight rates to the United States, there have also been recent reports that the U.S. Customs inspection rate has increased.

This is because the volume of cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has dropped rapidly, and the customs has indeed added a lot of new employees, so the probability of cargo inspection has also increased sharply. It is possible that the situation of "substantial delays caused by inspections" that has occurred in Canada before will occur. At that time, because it took one or two months or even four or five months to pass Canadian customs, some sellers chose to transfer directly from the United States to Canada. However, the high inspection rate at that time was due to a shortage of customs staff, but the Canadian government was strictly inspecting Chinese products at the request of the United States, so it could not be handled. It is not exactly the same as the current high inspection rate of US customs, so even if the current high inspection rate in the United States will cause delays in cargo transportation, it will not be as serious as it was at that time.

According to the information provided by freight forwarders, products with a high probability of being inspected include toys, gardening, carpets and home textiles, shoes and clothing, electronic products, auto parts and other high-value products. They specifically focus on the under-declaration of high-value products, and some customs officials even require the provision of tax bills declared by customs clearance agencies within five years and proof of goods value, and collect the difference in tax for under-declared goods.

Therefore, if you are shipping goods recently, especially to the United States, you must make relevant preparations. If you need to declare a lower amount, you must prepare sufficient supporting documents to deal with possible inspections.