Over the last 12 months, that shipping cost has been going up and up. But mid-July brought some much-needed respite from weeks of double-digit rises.
In its weekly World Container Index, supply chain advisory company Drewry has shown that the average cost of a 40-foot container is now more than four times higher than it was nine months ago.
Since April, the cost has gone from $2,706, to $5,901. To ship a container from China to North Europe – one of the busiest shipping trade lanes – has increased by 523 per cent vs last year. From China to the US west coast, the cost has increased by 320 per cent vs last year. And the to ship from China to the US east coast, the cost has gone up by 246 per cent.
These eyewatering numbers mean that the cost of shipping your goods now is so much more expensive than it was a year ago, albeit still significantly less than the previous pandemic peak. The average cost to ship a 40-foot container then was $10,377. But pre-pandemic? Well, the average cost was $1,420.
These are huge hikes in cost which are difficult to mitigate against.
But the pace of those increases, for the first time since early May, has slowed dramatically through July. So are the brakes finally being applied to rising costs? Or is this a slowdown before further acceleration? And what does it all mean for relocations?