The Government asked to clarify the sudden increase in the hiring price for ships and containers

According to the Government Office, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has directed the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with other agencies to remove difficulties in freight rates for export activities. He also asked to inspect, clarify and strictly deal with acts of hiring ships and containers.

According to exporting enterprises, in the past 3 months, container rental price has increased 2-10 times. At the meeting on January 12, the representative of the Vietnam Plastic Association said that the increase in freight rates many times caused businesses to reduce export sales, the current inventory compared to last year is up to 50. %. In particular, some businesses declared their closure because of too high sea freight rates.

Meanwhile, shipping lines argued that due to the impact of Covid-19, the release of cargo and the rotation of empty containers was prolonged. The volume of goods exported to Europe and the US has also recently increased, leading to a lack of empty containers for packing. Some ship owners also emphasized that the number of trips from Vietnam has not been cut, or even increased, but due to a serious shortage of containers, leading to the situation of container prices. The shipping lines also assessed that the shortage of empty containers could last until the end of March or even the end of the second quarter of 2021 if Covid-19 has not ended.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, due to the impact of Covid-19, the reduction of cargo handling capacity in European and North American ports led to the drop in shipping lines, resulting in a shortage of empty shipments. The epidemic also reduced production capacity in regions such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, South Asia, and increased imports from the US and Europe from East Asia, including China and Vietnam. Two resonating factors have pushed up container rents.

On the other hand, the capacity of Vietnamese enterprises to receive and manage empty containers is still limited, there is no large enough empty container depot, the depots are small, scattered and do not meet the demand. packing for export. There are very few companies doing business in building and repairing containers, especially specialized containers, so they depend on the volume of containers from foreign shipping lines.