Container access, suspension of ag shipments draw attention, coverage

Last week’s Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance report about an unexpected move by an ocean carrier to suspend U.S. agriculture container export shipments has drawn considerable coverage and attention in the shipping industry.

During a virtual meeting of SSGA’s competitive shipping action team on Thursday, members on the call learned of breaking development that one of the top ocean carriers, Hapag -Lloyd, had just moved to suspend container shipments of U.S. agriculture exports for the foreseeable future in response to current imbalances in global two-way container shipping.

The group concurred that a public statement was warranted because the suspension comes at a critical time – immediately following harvest – for supplying food and feed customers overseas. The group was also concerned that additional carriers might begin canceling or reducing export bookings at a time of need.

The export suspension is being driven by the need for ocean carriers to get their containers back to Asian manufacturing centers as quickly as possible to handle burgeoning, higher value imports coming to the U.S. High demand for imported consumer goods has driven import container shipping prices to their highest level, to the extent that some carriers apparently are willing to send empty containers immediately back to Asia for faster turnaround.

World Grain, Feedstuffs and Brownfield News Network were among several ag news sources that picked up SSGA’s release and covered the issue.

Freightwaves and Journal of Commerce covered the developing story among the shipping industry news sources.

The container flow imbalances in demand and costs, which underlie the challenges ocean carriers face in getting containers in position in Asia, have also been among key developments affecting the ag export supply chain.

Freightwaves recently reported on the rapidly growing import demand in a story headlined “Container slots sell out, risking holiday ‘shipageddon’”, while JOC also reported “Container lines maxing out capacity to meet US import surge.”