Outrageous! The order was shipped in February, but it is still stuck in Shanghai

According to foreign media reports, part of an order shipped from China to the United States in February is still stranded at the port of Shanghai.

In February of this year, an agricultural supplies supplier based in Illinois in the Midwestern United States ordered eight containers of fertilizer from a factory in Chongqing, China.

According to logistics companies, in previous years, these goods would have arrived in Illinois in April, just in time for growers to use them during the planting season. But until May, these fertilizers were still in Chongqing, where they were produced, mainly due to a lack of containers.

It took the logistics company several months to find enough containers and cargo ship space to transport the goods to Shanghai.

Fortunately, these containers arrived in Shanghai before the heavy rains came and the waterway was closed. However, due to the soaring freight rates, the logistics company had to spend a high freight fee to transport these containers to the US port. Even so, they did not transport all the goods. Seven of the containers were shipped to the United States, and the remaining container, as of the time of reporting, was still stranded in Shanghai.

Even if the fertilizer finally arrives in the U.S., the trouble is not over. Outside the port, a large number of ships are waiting for berths, and inside the port, a large amount of cargo is piled up waiting to be shipped.

Next comes the journey inland. Again due to port congestion, worker and transportation shortages, it can take another one to three months for containers to be transported from West Coast ports by rail or truck to their destinations.  

The cargo's journey is a microcosm of the chaos in the ocean shipping market this year, with freight rates soaring and shipping congestion looking like becoming the norm.

Some time ago, several shipping giants announced that spot freight rates would "stop rising", and ocean freight rates are expected to stabilize. In terms of freight rates, sellers do not have to worry about experiencing the previous "surge" again for the time being, but the shipping congestion situation has not been alleviated yet.

According to the latest news, the number of container ships waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach has increased to 59, with a total of over 400,000 TEUs, compared to only 33 less than a month ago. With strong demand and the difficulty of significantly increasing shipping capacity in the short term, the problem of port congestion seems to be continuing for some time.

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