The highlight of this month
- In China, Container Availability Index values double up in January 2022 from 2019 and 2020-21, showing more containers repositioned to China and fewer outbounds (as compared to data from 2019-2021 for the month of January).
It is interesting to see that as per the Container Availability Index (CAx), the index values are much higher as compared to the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. While the CAx was 0.30 in 2019, 0.36 in 2020 and 0.35 in 2021 at the Shanghai port, the values are 0.61, almost 2X this year at week 5. The CAx values were 0.53 at week 4, which is again much higher than the last three years during the same period. The Ningbo port and the Tianjin port also have the same availability graphs and trends.
- As expected, the average container prices in China increased in the month of January owing to the pre-Chinese New Year rush to get the boxes out of China. The lunar new year is expected to have a greater impact than the last few years because of extended factory closures in China owing to the zero-COVID policy.
A 40 feet high cube cargo worthy container that costed $5374 in December 2021 at the Shanghai port, now costs $5431 in January 2022. A similar trend is observed for Ningbo ($5478 in December and $5633 in January) and Qingdao ($5255 in September and $5349 in January)
In the month of January in 2021, the average price of cargo worthy 40 feet high cube container was $4535 which is $5431 in January 2022 in Shanghai. In Ningbo, these prices were $3359 in January 2021 which is now $5633 and in Qingdao $4509 in January 2021 which is $5349 in January 2022.
- Similarly, the leasing charges from China to North America have increased by 17% from December to January.
