Today, the Ministry of transport held a press conference and said that at present, the transportation capacity of major ocean routes, including China, is still tight, and the global freight rates remain high. China is increasing the capacity of export routes and container supply, improving the efficiency of container transportation and ensuring the smooth flow of international logistics supply chain.
According to the data of the Ministry of transport, from January to August this year, the import and export of China's goods trade increased by 23.7% over the same period in 2020, of which the export increased by 23.2% over the same period in 2020. With the continuous improvement of China's foreign trade situation, the demand for international container transportation began to increase significantly. The rebound of overseas epidemic has led to serious congestion in some overseas ports, poor international logistics supply chain, and a significant decline in ship operation efficiency and empty container turnover.
The Ministry of transport has actively guided international liner companies to increase the capacity and container supply of Chinese mainland export routes and improve the efficiency of container transport. From January to August this year, the number of cabins invested by major liner companies also began to increase significantly. Among them, the capacity of North American routes reached 911 million TEUs, an increase of 40.2% and 24.8% respectively over the same period in 2020 and 2019. The capacity of northwest European routes was 5.67 million TEUs, an increase of 23.7% and 8% respectively over the same period in 2020 and 2019.
Sun Wenjian, spokesman of the Ministry of transport: actively cooperate with the Ministry of industry and information technology, coordinate China's container manufacturing enterprises to increase production, and coordinate liner companies to speed up the return of empty containers. At present, the monthly production capacity has been increased from 200000 TEUs to 500000 TEUs. With the release of China's new container capacity and the acceleration of empty container turnover, the shortage of empty containers has been basically alleviated according to the main liner companies.
At present, the inventory of new containers in China's major container manufacturers has exceeded 400000 TEUs, and the supply of new containers is fully guaranteed. Only a few liner enterprises may have a temporary shortage of empty containers in individual ports due to the impact of shipping schedule delay, weather and epidemic prevention and control.
The Ministry of transport will also promote port and shipping enterprises and import and export enterprises to strengthen cooperation, and encourage Chinese cargo owner enterprises to actively negotiate and sign long-term transportation contracts with liner companies to provide stable supply chain guarantee.