From January to August this year, my country's imports and exports of goods trade increased by 23.7% over the same period in 2020. Among them, exports increased by 23.2% over the same period in 2020. The continuous improvement of my country's foreign trade situation has promoted a substantial increase in the demand for international container transportation.
The Ministry of Transport will take active measures with the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ministries and commissions to coordinate the prevention and control of the epidemic and ensure smooth traffic. The specific points are as follows:
One is to actively guide international liner companies to increase shipping capacity and container supply on China's mainland export routes, and improve the efficiency of container transportation. On the main routes of mainland China, from January to August this year, the number of cabins invested by major liner companies also began to increase significantly. Among them, the capacity of North American routes reached 9.11 million TEUs, an increase of 40.2% and 24.8 respectively over the same period in 2020 and 2019. %. The capacity of the Northwest Europe route was 5.67 million TEUs, an increase of 23.7% and 8% over the same period in 2020 and 2019.
The second is to actively cooperate with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to coordinate my country's container manufacturers to increase their productivity and coordinate liner companies to speed up the return of empty containers. The current monthly production capacity has been increased from 200,000 TEUs in the past to 500,000 TEUs, the highest in history. With the release of new container production capacity in my country, empty container turnover has accelerated. According to major liner companies, the shortage of empty containers has been basically eased. The inventory of new containers in my country's major container manufacturers has exceeded 400,000 TEUs, and the supply of new containers is adequately guaranteed. At present, only a few liner companies may have a temporary shortage of a small amount of empty containers in individual ports due to delays, weather, epidemic prevention and control, etc.
The third is to promote the strengthening of cooperation between port and shipping companies and import and export companies to overcome difficulties together, and encourage Chinese shippers and liner companies to actively negotiate and sign long-term transportation contracts to provide a stable supply chain guarantee. Long-term contract customers are the “big heads” of container transportation, and many overseas cargo owners will sign long-term contracts to obtain transportation service guarantees at stable prices. Here is an example. At the beginning of this year, a Chinese company signed a long-term contract with a related shipping group. The price of each box is about US$2,600. At present, the price of a single container has reached tens of thousands of dollars. Here, the Ministry of Transport encourages owners and shipping companies to sign long-term contracts, so that the interests of both parties can be protected, and at the same time, they can stabilize market prices.
