XENETA, a benchmarking and market
intelligence platform for containerised ocean freight, says big volume shippers
are not paying the best shipping rates.
Over
the last 18 months, high-volume shippers are actually being locked in to
unfavourable long-term agreements, leaving others to take advantage of low fuel
prices, mega ship capacities and hyper efficient supply change management.
"Volume
no longer necessarily translates to savings," said CEO Patrik Berglund.
"In fact, in many cases, big volume shippers are paying far above the
current Asia-Europe or Asia-US rates.
"These
businesses, which are often related to consumer goods, typically sign annual
supply contracts with large vendors in order to keep merchandise in their
stores, or to supply the giant EU and/or American retail chains. This provides
them with supply chain stability, and predictability, but it also locks them
into agreements that are fixed, and don't always deliver value."
To
illustrate this, Mr Berglund points towards the 2015 Far East main ports to
northwest Europe main port rates in the Xeneta platform. Here, he notes, there
are major differences between long- and short-term contracts, a company
statement said.
For
a 40-foot container shipped as part of a long-term contract the mean market low
was US$1,175 and the average $1,696. Short-term prices were markedly lower,
with a mean market low of $857 and an average of $1,355.
There
was an even greater disparity between minimum prices, with the long-term low at
$807 and an average of $1,535. Compare this to the same short-term rates of
$240 and $571.
"Big
volume shippers are essentially leaving money on the table with every container
shipped," said Mr Berglund.
"Some
shipping lines are benefiting of course, but it seems the third party logistics
(3PLs) firms are arguably becoming the real winners here" making their
significant margins from short- and long-term agreements and carrier
kickbacks."
Source
: HKSG.
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