China News Service, Paris, August 24th. Title: Visiting the Port of Le Havre, France, to feel the “pulse” of the tension in the global shipping system
China News Agency reporter Li Yang
The tense situation of the global shipping system in the new crown epidemic is currently receiving high attention from the outside world. A reporter from China News Agency recently visited the port of Le Havre in France to observe the current complex challenges faced by the logistics, transportation and shipping industries.
The reporter saw at the port of Le Havre that despite the rebound of the epidemic in France, the operation of the port remained stable as usual. Many large container ships were docked at the port, and dock workers were intensively working to hoist containers from ships calling at the port.
George Dennis, the commercial manager of the Port of Le Havre, told reporters that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the Port of Le Havre has always been in working condition, but the volume of operations will change and the port has never been closed due to the epidemic. He said that Le Havre Port’s epidemic prevention measures are implemented in strict accordance with French official regulations, and employees who are confirmed to be infected will be required to be isolated; most employees have been vaccinated against the new crown.
The port of Le Havre is an important port in France, and its port throughput ranks second in France; as the port is located at the mouth of the Seine, it is also regarded as the “outer port of Paris”. Due to the successive strikes and the epidemic in 2020, the production operations of Le Havre Port were affected to a certain extent, but in the second quarter of 2021, it has basically returned to the production level before the epidemic.
However, due to the recent rebound of the mutated virus strain delta in many places around the world, many countries have re-strengthened epidemic prevention and control measures, and some important ports have been temporarily closed due to the epidemic. However, the demand for goods in many places has increased unabated, and a large number of freight ships, especially Container ships can only wait in line outside the port; many major ports in European countries, especially important ports such as Rotterdam, have serious cargo congestion problems.
Le Havre Port is also inevitably affected by the overall environment of the global shipping industry, and the occupancy rate of the terminal yard has reached about 85%. The reporter noticed that there are indeed a lot of containers piled up in the port terminal, which has occupied most of the space in the yard; but there are no freight ships in the port that need to line up to enter the port. According to reports, the operation of the Le Havre port terminal can be completed on schedule, and the ship can leave the port soon after completing the operation without long waiting.
Yao Hongzhi, general manager of COSCO SHIPPING France, said in an interview with reporters that Le Havre port has accumulated more than 6,000 empty containers, and it is difficult to resume circulation in the short term; meanwhile, shipping prices are still rising; the current Central Europe Compared with 2020, the price of container transportation on routes has risen several times. Such high freight rates were “unthinkable” in the past.
Yao Hongzhi revealed that in 2020, the cost of transporting a container from China to Northwestern Europe is about 2,000 to 3,000 US dollars. In 2021, it has risen all the way, and has now risen from 6,000 US dollars to 13,000 US dollars. The ocean freight rate has risen sharply; The cost in the United States is higher.
Regarding the current tightness of the shipping system and the sharp increase in shipping freight, Shen Zhijiang, deputy general manager of COSCO SHIPPING Lines France, analyzed to reporters that although shipping companies are working hard to increase capacity, many ports have The processing capacity of the ship is still limited; the ship punctuality rate has dropped sharply due to epidemic prevention and control and other reasons, causing the port congestion problem to become more serious; the congestion problem of the important transit ports in Rotterdam, Singapore and other Eurasian regions will also bring congestion to other ports The “cascading effect.”
Shen Zhijiang said that COSCO France is currently trying to solve the problem of empty container circulation. By carefully and carefully dispatching empty containers in Le Havre port, increasing the intensity of transshipment, and guaranteeing transportation safety and reasonable capacity, it will try to remove empty containers as much as possible. The boxes are shipped back to the country in order to resume circulation.
The issue of crew rotation in ocean shipping has also become an important challenge, and COSCO SHIPPING France also needs to deal with it. After COSCO SHIPPING’s crew rotates in the port of Le Havre, they need to go to Paris and then take a civil flight back home. As the current domestic and foreign civil aviation flights are very tight, how to arrange for them to return home smoothly in compliance with Chinese and foreign epidemic prevention regulations is also a difficult problem that COSCO SHIPPING France needs to deal with. In order to solve related problems as soon as possible, Yao Hongzhi and Shen Zhijiang both call and send messages from time to time to guide the arrangement of crew quarantine, virus detection, flight booking and other specific matters.
It is reported that global ports are facing the biggest crisis in more than half a century. Regarding whether the global shipping system can resume normal operation in the short term, Yao Hongzhi said that this will depend on the changes in the epidemic and the global economic situation. He believes that if the recent epidemic can be alleviated and the global economy continues to recover, it is possible that the shipping system will gradually get back on track, otherwise the current tension will continue for some time.
With the advent of traditional Western festivals such as Christmas and the Chinese New Year, the demand for goods from both China and foreign countries is bound to increase further, and ports such as Le Havre are bound to face greater challenges. Yao Hongzhi told reporters that COSCO SHIPPING and other companies will work hard to ensure maritime transportation, maintain a smooth supply chain, and serve the new pattern of “dual cycle” development, and strengthen cooperation with ports such as Le Havre to promote Sino-French and Sino-European trade in the epidemic. Remain stable. (End)
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