World logistics situation in 2022

World logistics in 2022

- The global container market maintains a high level of profitability, but is showing signs of weakening

After two years with record growth rates in the period 2020 - 2021, the global container market is showing certain signs of weakness. According to statistics, the volume of containers in inbound, outbound and in the region has all witnessed a downward trend compared to 2021. In which, the volume of containers entering Oceania and Europe has shown signs of a slight decrease since March. this year. The volume of containers entering the North American market is still increasing, but the growth rate is slowing down.

Besides, Shanghai's container freight rate (CCFI) has shown an average decrease of 30% compared to 2021.

This trend is expected to continue in the last months of the year, when consumers are tending to pour money into services instead of goods like during the epidemic period. In addition, the volume of inventories in the US and European markets also remained high, which may cause the volume of goods transported by container to slow down in the coming time.

- Shipping lines make efforts to green up logistics

The COVID-19 epidemic has brought shipping lines huge profits. Grasping the growing trend of seaborne trade, shipping lines compete fiercely in the strategy of improving their carrying capacity, constantly adding and upgrading their fleets and deploying new transport routes, in the direction of green logistics.

Notably, most shipping lines tend to reserve ships operating on liquefied petroleum gas (LNG), which is part of a strategy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. .

Specifically, in mid-July 2022, HMM, a major Korean shipping company, announced that it would spend part of its $11 billion investment to add a new fleet. Or MSC has just ordered 20 container ships with a capacity of 8,000 - 11,000 TEUs from New Times Shipbuilding, all of these fleets are operated by liquefied petroleum gas from the end of June 2022.

CMA CGM shipping line is no exception when adding 06 dual-methanol fuel vessels, with a capacity of 15,000 TEUs to the CMA CGM fleet by the end of 2025.

- The trend of integrated logistics services

Air freight is an attractive market for sea freight carriers, especially in the context that integrated logistics services are trending. Maersk Lines, the world's largest container shipping company, opened its air cargo division in April 2022. Currently, the carrier has a fleet of 15 aircraft. French container shipping company CMA CGM, the world's third largest ocean freighter, started its air freight business in March 2021 and will have 12 aircraft in service by 2026. CMA CGM has signed an agreement agreed with Air France-KLM in May to share the cargo space and said it would buy a 9% stake in the airline. Maersk Lines is expected to receive 7 Boeing 767s (3 on purchase and 4 on lease) around the beginning of November 2022. Maersk will also purchase two more Boeing 777s, scheduled for delivery in 2024. The aircraft will fly Asia to the United States and Asia-Europe routes. The company also acquired freight forwarder Senator International last year.

- Zero-COVID policy with transportation activities in East Asia

The Zero-COVID policy is an important and cross-cutting anti-epidemic policy of China in the years 2021 - 2022. And in 2022, the application of this policy in Shanghai in May led to this important port city. blocked and other logistics service operations were seriously disrupted.

The reason why this blockade of Shanghai has had such a strong impact on the world is the disruption of continuity in the operation of shipping and container handling services, which is very difficult to return. pace after two years of stressful epidemics. Since Shanghai entered the blockade, transportation activities have been severely disrupted. Waiting time for goods to complete import and export procedures has been delayed.

In addition, the blockade of Shanghai also severely affected the flow of empty containers. With China being the world's factory, the amount of empty containers gathered in the Shanghai area is huge for export demand. When Shanghai was blocked, it meant that the empty container[1]er could not be released, leading to a serious shortage of containers for other transshipment and import ports.

Besides sea transport, aviation activities were also disrupted because airports could not operate at 100% capacity. Cargo flights to and from Shanghai and many other airports in China were disrupted, sending air freight rates skyrocketing.

- Digital transformation - an inevitable trend in the logistics industry

Since the COVID-19 epidemic took place, the trend of digital transformation has become more and more popular and promoted. In particular, in the logistics industry, technology does not stop with "track & trace" - control and tracking, but many businesses are looking for ways to display their entire supply chain. According to a survey by Alloy Techonologies, 92% of logistics company executives say that supply chain management is an important factor for success. However, only 27% of them figured out how to successfully digitalize their business. This shows that digital transformation is an inevitable trend of the logistics industry, but not all companies are capable of successful digital transformation.