According to the Financial Times, falling global demand for goods has led to a sharp drop in the production of shipping containers around the world, leaving empty containers piling up at ports. According to data provided to the Financial Times by Drewry, a maritime research consultancy, production of standard-size (20-inch, 6.1-metre long) containers fell 71 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same period this year, from 1.06 million to 306,000.
The situation is in stark contrast to two years ago, when the container manufacturing industry was booming to cope with a surge in demand for goods caused by the pandemic and containers were in short supply. Since the economy reopened, however, export demand has weakened, creating exactly the opposite situation for the shipping industry: a surplus of containers, and threatening to make China’s ports unaffordable, since up to 95 percent of the world’s containers are produced in China. Falling demand has hit manufacturers hard. At —-, one of China’s largest container producers, profit for the first three months of the year plunged 91 per cent from a year earlier to Rmb160m.
WTO economists believe export growth will stagnate this year, suggesting that demand for containers will continue to be weak. The World Trade Organization’s latest forecast, released last month, showed trade in goods growing just 1.7 percent this year, down from 2.7 percent in 2022. According to Drewry, global container production reached 7.1 million standard sizes in 2021, more than double 2020 production. Now demand has fallen sharply and empty containers are piling up at record levels across the Asia-Pacific region.
Post time: May-24-2023