Christian Roelofs, CEO of Container xChange, said that at present, more and more empty containers are piling up in the port yards of Europe and the United States.

It said that the problem caused by the accumulation of empty containers in American ports was unlikely to be solved before 2023.

At present, the major shipping companies are puzzled about how to transport a large number of empty containers from North American ports back to Asia. 

In addition to the current challenges, the United States also faces the bottleneck problem of truck transportation, which makes it very difficult to transport goods by land.

Roeloffs said that it is the peak transportation season, and practitioners are working hard to ensure that retailers have enough inventory on their shelves to cope with the upcoming holiday and Christmas season.

But, as the labor negotiations on the west coast of the United States have not yet been reached, many freight forwarders have transferred goods to the east coast of the United States, causing congestion on the east coast of the United States.

On the other hand, there are also some complex situations in inland areas, such as the serious shortage of truck drivers and the delay of railways, which make the logistics situation worse. All in all, there are many difficulties affecting the peak freight season.

Roeloffs pointed out that "at present, it is the traditional peak freight season, the busiest season of the year. The average freight rate of containers from China and Southeast Asia to the United States usually rises in the peak shipping season."

"We expect prices to rise in the coming weeks. In the medium term, what may change this year is that the average increase of container freight rates will be relatively small due to several supply chain disruptions."

In the United States and Europe, the accumulation of empty containers will lead to a shortage of warehouse space. As carriers are eager to deal with old containers, the price of second-hand containers will continue to decline.

Sea Intelligence, a shipping consultancy, recently warned that the number of empty containers would increase by the end of this year and the beginning of 2023. Once the market is normalized, it may take a long time to deal with the problem of empty containers.

He believes that the container ships on the main routes are still fully loaded, which means that the carrier is unlikely to be willing to transport empty containers back.

From December 2022 to February 2023, we will see that containers in American warehouses have 50% more transport capacity than ships that can transport them back to Asia.

The company predicts that if the congestion problem cannot be effectively alleviated by the end of this year, the problem caused by empty containers may become very serious.

GLA hereby reminds the freight forwarders that if you have cargo at ports in Europe and the United States, you need to contact the shipping company in time to avoid delay in cargo delivery.