A shortage of containers in Asia will weigh on supply chains for at least another six to eight weeks, meaning it will affect deliveries ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Habben Jansen, CEO of Haberot, said the company had added about 250,000 TEU of container equipment in 2020 to meet strong demand, but still faced shortages in recent months.”Congestion and increased traffic at the ports have exacerbated the problem, and I think in another six to eight weeks, the tension will ease.”

Congestion means that there are quite a few ship delays, which also results in weekly available capacity declining.Jansen called on shippers to provide more accurate information about their needs and to fulfill their container volume commitments to help solve the problem.Jansen says that in the past few months, pre-orders have risen by 80-90%.This means there is a growing gap between the number of orders received by operators and the number of final shipments.

He also urged customers to return containers as soon as possible to reduce turnaround time.”Normally, the average use of a container in a year is five times, but this year it has dropped to 4.5 times, which means that 10 to 15 per cent of additional containers are needed to maintain normal operation.That’s why we ask our customers to return the containers as soon as possible.”Mr Jansen believes a shortage of containers has contributed to record east-West freight rates, but the surge is temporary and will fall when demand slows.

In this reminder, to book the cargo freight forwarders friends, must be determined early advance arrangements booking space.Forward to be known ~