The rise in shipping rates and the lack of quotas put pressure on foreign trade

Exporters and importers feel the impact.

A part of the banana that is marketed abroad is placed through the marketspot,which implies delivering the fruit in a short period and at the current price. To get that fruitspotIt is necessary to get almost immediately the quotas available on ships to send the containers.

The search for shipping spaces, however, has been complicated in recent months mainly because of the awakening of Chinese trade. The Asian giant is reacting to the commercial demand that he could not attend during his critical phase of the pandemic and that has complicated all the logistics for the rest of the world.

On the one hand, that has unleashed a lack of containers, as the Chinese are monopolizing the units for their exports and imports. China, for example, is demanding containersreeferfor the increase in their imports of pork and beef. That type of containers is used in the banana sector.

Richard Salazar, Executive Director of the Banana Marketing and Export Association (Acorbanec), indicates that the problem is not only to find a ship space, but the congestion in some Chinese ports, and the fact that some shipping companies are privileging routes that allow them to come and go full.

The leader explains that shipping companies are attending the contracted spaces first, that is, those that are generally negotiated in advance for the year. "Fruit spacespotIt is reduced and that is generating us that fruit is being left in Ecuador, ”he says.

In the banana market it is estimated that 40 % of the fruit is sold inspotAnd part of that would be affecting the lack of shipping spaces.

Salazar argues that all these factors have led to the prices of shipping freight registering important increases. A container that was previously taken at $ 2,500 now costs between $ 5,000 and $ 6,000, depending on the market.

The difficulties facing the banana sector are also replicated in other export and import items.

Christian Riofrío, executive director of the Ecuadorian Association of Wood Industries, says that this sector, more than the high costs of shipping freight, is dealing with the lack of availability to certain routes, such as India, where Teca is sold. Balsa is mainly sent to China; And to Europe, furniture.

This affects that the desired amount of product or placed in the estimated time cannot be sent.

Riofrío indicates that freight rates have doubled and tripled. He even says, cases of freight have been heard that went from $ 3,000 to $ 15,000.

In this sector there is a double impact, since there are companies that to prepare their finished products must import supplies, raw materials and capital goods, which come from routes that have increased costs.

Xavier Rosero, a teacher and specialist in foreign trade, explains that the problem for these types of companies is that this increase in freight translates into an increase in the payment of the tax on the currency exit (ISD) when freight or insurance are canceled. "That ends the cost structure and then compete in export," says Rosero.

Exporters and importers indicate that the most affected routes are those that are directed to Asian destinations, where there are cases in which prices rose five more times.

Rosero explains that shipping companies seem to be attending more asia circuits rather than emerging markets, such as Latin America.

"With the United States you feel the increase (of freight), but it is much more accentuated with Asia, especially with China," says Rosero.

A global report calledContainer Forecaster de DrewryIt determines that this 2021 will be the first year in the history of the shipping lines in which its benefits approach the $ 100,000 million and in which the average rate of freight fire triggers 50 %, in a context of huge operational alterations in port and ship systems.

How long can this increase in freight last? Alberto Acosta Burneo, editor of the publicationWeekly analysis, who recently addressed this problem in a workshop, argues that this trend could last a few more months until international logistics are readjusted.

"The issue is that this is not immediate, it requires a relocation of resources on the different routes and around the world, reallocation of routes and containers to return to normal," says the analyst.

‘There is an imbalance between supply and demand’

The president of the Maritime Chamber of Ecuador, Fernando Donoso, says that the world is facing an imbalance between supply and demand that affects logistics globally.

From the fourth quarter of 2020, the product of the new consumption trends, electronic commerce, among other factors, there was a recovery in consumption in certain areas such as the United States, Europe and China at unexpected levels. That, according to Donoso, generated a load volume greater than the transport offer and available resources.

On the other hand, as recovery is not the same in all regions, and the trade flow is not regular in both roads (import and export), that affects the availability of containers.

Donoso indicates that more of that has registered several events with global repercussions, such as the closure of the Suez Canal and the partial paralysis of ports such as Yantian (China) by Covid-19 regrges.

"All this further aggravated the crisis, causing a disruption in the international supply chain, and with this the impact on shipping freights," says Donoso.