Excellent Explanation of the Global Container Shortage and Soaring Rates
Everyone in the global trade of logs and wood products have witnessed rapidly rising ocean container rates along with container shortages in the last few months. We all keep hearing many reasons for this, but it is still somewhat of a mystery to some.
One of my colleagues sent me a link of a very informative video that was made by the Japanese freight forwarding company, HPS Trade. These two videos help explain the reasons for the container shortages and also that this problem is not likely to be resolved soon. For those in the trade, this may not be anything new, but it is a short and succinct explanation of what has been happening. It also helps explain why there is likely to some further supply shortages coming in key market such as Japan and China in 2021Q1, and this sets the stage for further price escalation of logs and lumber in 2021-Q1.
Here are the two videos:
Nov 12, 2020: Why there is a serious “Container Shortage” problem in late 2020? (7 minutes)
Dec 13, 2020: Effect of Container Shortage in 2020! Reason why there have been large Ocean Freight increase sand Vessel Delays. (9 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxT1onuHjA8
Enjoy, and I welcome any additional perspectives on this topic!
Russ Taylor