According to the Drewry World Contain Index, container prices continue to slowly fall on most of the major routes around the world. The composite index showed a drop of 2.3%, despite remaining 283% higher than one year ago. The route with the largest decrease in price, 7%, was Shanghai to New York, while Shanghai to Los Angeles fell 2%. Rates for Los Angeles to Shanghai, Shanghai to Rotterdam, Rotterdam to Shanghai, and Shanghai to Genoa each saw their rates move down 1%. On the contrary, the rates from New York to Rotterdam rose slightly, at 3%.
To go along with the good news regarding freight rates, it has been announced that the Port of Los Angeles will start 24-hour operations in an attempt to ease the logjam. This announcement comes as the nearby port of Long Beach has already been operating 24 hours a day. Both of these ports are experiencing elevated volumes, exacerbating the situation and putting more pressure on the supply chain. A report from NPR said that one shipping expert pointed out that even if the bottleneck is resolved at the ports, the issue could easily shift to other sections of the supply chain such as railyards or a shortage of truck drivers.
Taking all of this into account, some analysts believe that the end of the shipping crisis is not necessarily coming in the short term. In a Yahoo Finance article, Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at Copenhagen-based BMCO, a trade group, said “We expect… strained supply chains to last until the early parts of 2023.” Sand believes that the “spectacular recover” in US consumer demand is a reason so much strain has been put on the global supply chain. All in all, many questions remain on when the situation will be resolved.