Pickup charges for container users are becoming more expensive across Chinese ports due to increasing container imbalances.
Prices have reached $950 per one 40HC container ex Shanghai (China) to Duisburg (Germany) in week 42.
According to Container Availability Index data, European and the US importers currently struggle to return empty containers to Asia.
As a result, these ports suffer from increasing dwell times and port congestion. On the other hand, carriers in Chinese ports are setting new regulations to control the imbalances.
Hapag Lloyd, for example, will now only release empty containers from its mainland China depots for a maximum of eight days prior to the arrival of the sailing.
Why do container owners levy pickup charges?
A pickup charge is a one time charge for each container that is picked up at the POL.
Container owner and user negotiate the pickup charge for each deal. This charge can be paid by both the supplier or the user, depending on the market situation.
Let’s look at a location in which the supplier has a shortage of containers first.
In this case, it could be China with decreasing container availability, the pickup charges will typically be paid by the user.
While if the user picks up boxes from a location with a large surplus, such as the US/Europe at the moment, and moves it to a deficit location, the supplier often pays container users to reposition their empty equipment into deficit locations.
Source : Container XChange
See the complete article on their website HERE.
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