Industry professionals remain pessimistic about the container market

Container xChange, a marketplace and technology infrastructure provider for container logistics companies, has just conducted a survey of around 200 players in the container logistics industry. The majority of freight forwarders, shippers and traders who were interviewed are far from optimistic for the peak container shipping season which usually occurs in the 3rd quarter of every year.

 

The study showed that 51% of respondents expect the situation for this high season 2022 to be worse than last year and 22% of respondents expect the level to be equivalent. Only 26% of respondents believe that the 2022 high season will be less chaotic than in 2021.

 

Previously, the health crisis had severely slowed trade, but the boom in demand after the blockages led to record freight prices in container transport, even greater congestion at ports and numerous delivery delays.

 

This year, according to those interviewed for this study, the challenges remain numerous: the Chinese zero-Covid policy which may determine other blockages, the availability of containers, price inflation, uncertainty about the conflict between the Russia and Ukraine.