{"id":20145,"date":"2020-10-27T01:43:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T22:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/container-lines-expect-u-s-import-boom-to-lose-steam\/20145\/"},"modified":"2020-10-27T01:43:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T22:43:51","slug":"container-lines-expect-u-s-import-boom-to-lose-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/container-lines-expect-u-s-import-boom-to-lose-steam\/20145\/","title":{"rendered":"Container Lines Expect U.S. Import Boom to Lose Steam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>By Jonathan Saul and Lisa Baertlein LONDON\/LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 (Reuters) \u2013 Surging shipments into the United States are fueling record high freight costs and <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/port-los-angeles-unscheduled-ships\/\">logjams at seaports<\/a>, but transportation executives say the rally will lose steam with a second wave of COVID-19 restrictions on the cards.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Container shipping companies, which move goods for customers including Amazon.com and Walmart, got stung late last year and early this year when COVID-19 halted trade around the world, and they question whether the U.S. import boom can be sustained.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s not get carried away,\u201d Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of Germany\u2019s Hapag Lloyd, told reporters. \u201cThis is just a spike that no one has foreseen in an unusual period. There will be a correction to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>U.S. consumer confidence ticked up in September, when retail sales accelerated. Still, consumers are eating through savings, layoffs are mounting and the country just set a record for new COVID-19 infections.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything depends on the demand and how the second wave of COVID affects the world economy,\u201d Aristides Pittas, CEO of shipping company Euroseas, said at a Capital Link virtual event.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, the cost of transporting goods from Asia to the United States \u2013 one of the world\u2019s biggest retail markets \u2013 topped $4,500 per 40-foot container unit (FEU), the highest recorded level, data from S&amp;P Global Platts Containers showed.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are sold out. The ships are 100% full. The containers are 100% full. You can\u2019t get a container,\u201d Jeremy Nixon, CEO of Japanese container group Ocean Network Express (ONE), said at a recent International Chamber of Shipping virtual event.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Total imports to the 10 largest U.S. seaports increased 9.2% in August and 12.4% in September, trade data from Descartes Systems showed.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>U.S. business inventories rebounded in August, as retailers and other companies raced to restock depleted warehouses and distribution centers.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cInventories are still quite low and there\u2019s a significant need to replenish them,\u201d said LeAnne Coulter, vice president of freight management at Penske Logistics.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Data suggests that <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/ships-wait-to-unload-at-port-of-los-angeles-as-china-imports-boom\/\">record volume at the Port of Los Angeles<\/a>, the busiest U.S. ocean trade hub, could stretch through November. Meanwhile, it is causing backups that could ripple through the supply chain.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will probably taper off in the first or second week of December,\u201d Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said of the import rush.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Jonathan Saul in London Editing by Marguerita Choy)<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jonathan Saul and Lisa Baertlein LONDON\/LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 (Reuters) \u2013 Surging shipments into the United States are fueling record high freight costs and logjams at seaports, but transportation executives say the rally will lose steam with a second wave of COVID-19 restrictions on the cards. Container shipping companies, which move goods for customers &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6154,82,6633,1339,3054,2235,6261],"class_list":["post-20145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-boom","tag-container","tag-expect","tag-import","tag-lines","tag-lose","tag-steam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/20146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}