Container availability and price warning for Ningbo and Vietnam ports

The online platform for container sourcing is expecting a similar pattern to that was seen for container availability and prices at Yantian port in South China which much of Yantian International Container Terminal was locked down for three weeks due to a Covid outbreak in the second quarter.

The impact in Yantian is still being felt and container prices rocketed from $5,515 in June to $15,336 this month.

“We saw a real and measurable spike in container prices and a major drop in container availability as measured by our Container Availability Index (CAx) when terminals at Yantian saw operations disrupted through most of June,” said Christian Roeloffs, co-founder of Container xChange. “Early indicators suggest we are likely to see the same impact in Vietnam and at Ningbo.”

At Yantian, the CAx level for a 40-foot dry container was 0.61 in Week 17 but fell to 0.47 in Week 22 and 0.3 in week 32.

Looking to Ningbo and Vietnam, where there are current lockdowns, average container prices at Ho Chi Minh City jumped from $2,872 in May to $4,875 in August. For Ningbo where Meishan Island International Container Terminal (MSICT) suspended operations from 11 August Container xChange said it had seen early indicators of an increase in container prices. Average August prices have climbed to $5,731, up from $5420 in June.

Related:Vessels work around closed Ningbo Meishan terminal

“Whether we see a further spike in container prices at Ningbo will probably be determined by how much cargo was disrupted at the port and whether we see additional shutdowns later this month,” said Dr Johannes Schlingmeier, CEO & Founder of Container xChange.

“Even if there are no additional closures it is likely that container prices will rise on lower availability in the coming weeks due to the lag between liner schedule disruption and container availability and pricing.”