The Wall Street Journal website published on March 11 entitled two canals, two major issues: articles with chaos in global shipping, the author is Costas Paris.Article excerpts as follows:
The Panama Canal and Suez Canal have encountered major problems now, which has led to chaos in the global shipping industry.
Due to long -term drought, operators in the Panama Canal have reduced the number of ships allowing navigation, resulting in prolonged waiting time.In addition, the shipping fee paid by the vessels passing by the channel is about 8 times the normal cost.
On the other hand, the Suez Canal is facing the threat of the Red Sea crisis.Worried about the attack of Yemenhase organizations, the container boat either waited for the navy to escort or just avoid this channel. It detoured South Africa, but the range was much far away.
The problem of the Suez Canal was caused by geopolitics. The problem of the Panama Canal was caused by the climate, but both were disturbing global trade.The volume of these two canals has dropped sharply by more than 1/3.Hundreds of vessels have changed the longer routes, leading to the increase in delivery delay and the increase in transportation costs, and have caused economic losses to the local community.
In view of the uncertainty faced by these two channels may last for several months, related ship operators are preparing accordingly.Last year, the two channels carried about 18%of the world's trade volume.
The Panama Canal is one of the most drought periods for its operations in the past century.The officials in charge of the canal hope that the drought in the mid -2023 will be alleviated at the end of the dry season in May this year.
In the Suez Canal, some ship operators have suspended their sailing indefinitely because the merchant ship facing the threat of attacks in the south.Since November last year, the Marcelon Organization has attacked more than 50 ships, one of which sinks into the Red Sea with one of the freights full of fertilizers, and 3 people have died on the other.
Tim Hansen, chief operating officer of Dorian LPG, headquartered in Connecticut, said: "This is the first time that two canals have been severely disturbed at the same time, so it must be planned in advance.However, the cost of transportation will increase greatly.
These problems have not yet had a huge impact on consumers, but companies have begun to be affected.Due to the shortage of parts and components, Tesla and Volvo had to suspend car production for up to two weeks in January this year.Some clothing companies choose to transport spring clothes through air transport rather than sea transport to ensure that they arrive on time.
Compared with the more common bottlenecks that appear due to the new crown epidemic in 2020 and 2021, the scale of the current supply chain interruption is not large.At that time, merchants passed the cost of higher shipping to consumers, resulting in a series of consumer goods prices rising.Once the bottlenecks of these two canals continue to exist, the situation may become more severe.
Peter Sander, the chief analyst of Norwegian Kerneta Company, said: "This is a time to a watershed, because they are used to globalization and are used to obtaining goods from anywhere at any time. ThereforeIt is important to ensure the maritime supply chain. "
