Corporate Blog-Aileen Music

February 02, 2010 12 Comments

The freight of shipping in international business practice mainly is related to the season. Normally, there are three peak seasons during the time of a year:

l          From the 1^st of Apr. to the end of Jun. is the first busy period

l          From July.01 to the end of Sept. is the second peak season

l          From Oct.01 to the end of Nov. is the third crazy busy time.

The trend of freight during a year will be: the quotation in December is same as November and then it becomes lower until next March. The lowest price is always happened every February or March. However, the seasonal effects for the line to United States and Canada are different from others. Usually, the peak season of these two countries happen from every Oct.

According to our experience, the changing rate of freight from off-season to peak season will be: 

l          The increasing rate of European line is about USD75-150/20’GP, USD150-300/40’GP&HQ。

l          The increasing rate of USA line is about USD250-300/20’GP,USD600-700/40’GP&HQ。

l          The increasing rate of South America line is about USD300-350/20’GP,USD600-650/40’GP&HQ.

l          The increasing rate of Middle East line is about USD50-150/20’GP,USD100~250/40′GP&HQ。

l          The increasing rate of Southeast Asian line is about USD50/20’GP,USD50/40′GP&HQ 

The shipping price is also influenced by economic situation, political issue, the cost of fuel and so on. There were no rules in the shipping market form the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis. At the beginning of 2009, international transaction trends to weak. There were less products shipped among different countries, at least people believe this would be happened. Consequently, the shipping prices felled down straightly. Almost all shipping companies operated at a side of negative margin. In order to avoid the further losses, many shipping companies cut down the operation of booking shipping spaces separately and trend to share the same ship together. This practice directly leads to the fluctuant quotation. Of course, severe competition exacerbated this situation. Accordingly, the service quality went down greatly. In 2009, the most status might be: the shipping space was very tight. Some shipping companies even overtook orders first and then broke their promise afterward. Being seller, we only can try to make reservation in advance and work with our long-term partner to avoid the dangers of rejection. This was really hard time for everyone!

The peak season by air is generally starting from July to Nov. The capacity of air shipping is far lower than vessel transportation, so the price of airplane changes every week during the peak season. Sometimes, the freight can be double of normal price. Also, due to the limited capacity, usually we book space 2-3 days in advance. Nowadays we need make a reservation one week in advance in 2009’s peak season. There is no guarantee of reservation or lower price in the peak season in 2009. Many goods stood on the line for air transportation over weeks.  

In our experience, the service quality in transportation market, whatever by sea or by ship, is related to the cost. Higher price leads to high standard service and safer shipping than that of cheaper price. Therefore, we must consider all aspects carefully before we make final offer. We should think about schedule, port of discharge, destination before we chose a shipping company. We should ensure safe and on-time shipping. Finally, we should balance the cost and service and risk. In short, we try to use our knowledge and professionalism to provide better service for our clients.

Knowledge

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