“We are starting to see that some ocean carriers are withdrawing from NVOCC relationships and others making it difficult for NVOs to offer carrier-like fixed-contract rates to shippers under preferential ‘named account’ terms agreed in advance with ocean carriers,” it said.
Several forwarding contacts have told <em>The Loadstar</em> they have been unable to secure rate agreements from the lines for January on the Asia-North Europe and transatlantic routes.
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Another forwarder said all he got back from his account manager was “excuses” for not quoting January rates, and that the stock answer from carriers was: “Let’s wait until after CNY.”
As a consequence, small, and even some mid-sized, forwarders and NVOCCs are unable to offer any guidance on next year’s freight charges to their shipper customers.
The fear from this situation is that it will force many smaller shippers to, at best, defer their orders or, in some cases, abandon their product order books altogether, given the uncertainty in the market and the risk that lower-value imports will become unsustainable.
Moreover, as a ‘second threat’ to the supply chain in 2022, Drewry also sees the risk of contract disputes involving bigger shippers that have sufficient volume to negotiate long-term deals with carriers.
“More BCOs – even the largest ones – will have to accept the new reality of the market: you cannot expect to ship 10 containers one week, 50 containers the next and hope to get 100% capacity for both weekly volumes,” said Drewry.
“Carriers are already telling BOs that their capacity in 2022 will be the contractual MQC [minimum quantity commitment] a year ‘divided by 52’,” said the consultant.
