~One-way pickup rates 200% higher from July’22~ 

~Average container prices increased by 58% in July’22 from June’22~ 

New Delhi, 23 August 2022: Container shortage, rising average container prices, and a 200+% rise in one-way pickup rates are just a few disruptions awaiting exporters and shippers in India at a time when the peak shipping season typically begins globally (July-August), according to the monthly container logistics report titled ‘Where Are All The Containers’.published today by Container xChange, a technology marketplace and operating platform for container logistic companies.

India has withered the rising global disruptions with more resilience than many other countries. However, the ripple effect of disruptions caused well over the past two years has caused significant market and container imbalances in the Indian shipping industry.

“India has been at the forefront of digitalization, e-commerce, and capacity building for containerized trade. The country has displayed resilience and agility at a time when the world is looking for a China plus one diversification strategy. The country has a vast coastline, and this gives it a very good opportunity to expand its shipping economy. However, there are many roadblocks, hinterland transportation being one, cost of containers being another. Our platform always shows Indian ports as one of the costlier ports. This is also because there are many charges that make the movement of containers costlier from India.”

“On a global scale, the important factor to consider is that there is not so much need for increasing the container fleet further. In fact, in another analysis, we studied that there will soon be an oversupply of containers worldwide. What is more important is to develop an infrastructure that attracts companies to conduct containerized trade in and through India. This will involve three key investments – digitalization of container trade, infrastructure for transportation, and bringing about efficiency and transparency in operational processes and charges. What requires more attention than ever is the creation of solutions that add to the standardization of shipping logistic operations. What India needs is a set of alternate mechanisms which can help expand port capacity and can then bring down the logistics costs”, said Christian Roeloffs, Cofounder and CEO, of Container xChange.

“However, India’s decision to expand its container manufacturing will come at an opportune time. Expanding domestic manufacturing will help ease the strain and make containers available for other nations despite containers being stuck at western countries and China.” Roeloffs added.

According to the report, there is a steep increase in the average container prices and one-way leasing rates in the month of July 2022. July is a crucial month for the shipping industry because this time period marks the beginning of the peak shipping season.

Average Container prices for cargo-worthy boxes in India rose significantly since the pandemic

Indian ports have been appearing in the costliest top 10 lists for both 20 ft DCs and 40 ft HCs as per the report. For 20 ft DCs, average prices rose by 61.15% from $900 in July 2020 to $2317 in July 2022. Whereas for 40 HCs, average container prices increased by 57.34% from $1800 in July 2020 to $2317 in July 4220.

However, the average trading prices for these boxes, for cargo-worthy 20DCs, the prices in Mundra, Nhava Sheva, and Chennai fell marginally to land at $2384, $2362, and $2356.

But for cargo-worthy 40HCs, the trading prices fell steeper at the ports of Mumbai and Mundra. The prices fell by 5.51% for Mumbai ($3773) and 8.85% for Mundra ($3605). The drop in prices at Chennai was 3.83% as the 20DCs were trading at $3969. At Nhava Sheva, the average price for a cargo-worthy 20DC was $3918.

As the sailing disruptions followed by container shortages continue this year, many shipping lines have skipped India port calls to maintain schedule integrity. This has subsequently affected the demand and has further led to a gradual yet marginal decline in average prices for cargo-worthy containers.

For more information on container prices, availabilities, and one-way rates, please download the full report from here – https://www.container-xchange.com/reports/monthly-container-logistics-update/