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Securities Times (Zhengquan Daily)Reporter Li Xiaoping

In the shipping market with continuous high fever, there has been a sound of loose freight rates recently. It is reported that the sea freight of 40 foot high containers from China to the west coast of the United States has fallen to about $9000, which has been "halved" compared with the highest of nearly $20000, and the freight rates of other routes have also decreased by varying degrees.

Yiwu market, known as the "World supermarket", is connected with 2 million small and medium-sized enterprises. The world's largest small commodity distribution center is the wind vane of the global market. It operates 1.7 million single products and exports goods to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. It has become an important window for China's foreign trade economy.

Has the sea freight really decreased? What changes are taking place in foreign trade exports? What is the impact on manufacturing enterprises? With many problems, recently, a reporter from securities times · e company went to Yiwu, Zhejiang Province. He learned from manufacturing enterprises, freight forwarding companies and local governments that at a time when the main channel of foreign trade is seriously blocked, a large number of foreign trade commodities are stranded for transportation, and the quotation in the shipping market is too chaotic, so that manufacturing enterprises and freight forwarding companies dare not accept orders rashly; The capital occupation caused by foreign trade goods to be transported and the rise of raw materials caused by the rise in the price of bulk commodities have made the majority of manufacturing enterprises more headache.

The yard is short of containers, and the stevedores worry about not working

Yiwu port is located at the intersection of Yiwu Port Road and Yinhai road. It is the main site for customs supervision of Yiwu small commodity export. Before the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia, more than 1000 containers of international land port were interlinked between the "Yung Yong boat" (Yiwu port Ningbo Zhoushan port).

In order to accelerate the integration and coordinated development of ports in Zhejiang Province, Ningbo port (3720, 0.02, 0.54%) launched an asset acquisition plan of RMB 5.642 billion in November 2020, including five companies such as Zhejiang Yiwu Port Co., Ltd. Therefore, today's Yiwu port is pasted with the red slogan "build the sixth port area of Ningbo Zhoushan port and build a world-class strong port" in many prominent positions.

The security inspection warehouse in Yiwu port starts to release at 7 a.m. under normal circumstances, the container trucks lined up on Yinhai road every morning for several kilometers. However, at about 7 a.m. on November 2, when the reporter arrived at the entrance of the security inspection warehouse in Yiwu port, the long silver sea road seemed empty. Although container trucks occasionally drove in, there was no need to queue up before customs clearance and you can enter at any time.

The container trucks in Yiwu port drive into the port. The uncle who sells breakfast here all year round has his own feelings about the cold and warm of the export. He told reporters that in the second half of last year, the roads around Yinhai road and Yiwu port were full of container trucks entering the port every morning. This congestion remained until the first half of this year. However, since the second half of this year, the number of trucks entering the port has decreased significantly.

"These truck drivers who lined up to enter the customs sometimes came to buy breakfast. In the second half of last year, one morning, my stall could sell for 500 ~ 600 yuan, and now it's OK to sell for 100 ~ 200 yuan." when the reporter talked to the uncle of the breakfast shop, a stevedore working in the supervision site of Yiwu port agreed with me with the bought breakfast, "Foreign containers are piled up, and there is a shortage of containers everywhere in China. Yesterday, our group of 16 people only loaded 2 containers. In the past, there was no work to be done, but now there is no work to be done."

As the world's largest exporter of small commodities, according to statistics, the annual container exports from Yiwu port account for 1 / 8 ~ 1 / 7 of the total container exports of Ningbo port, "Under normal circumstances, in the empty container yard of Yiwu port, empty containers are often full. One cabinet is stacked with another, which is generally 5 ~ 6 floors high. But now the whole Yiwu port is seriously short of cabinets, and everyone is waiting for cabinets."

Following the direction of the above stevedores' fingers, the reporter walked around the periphery of the empty container yard in Yiwu port. In the open space of the empty container yard, some containers are stacked sporadically, and the highest place is only three floors. Moreover, on the outdoor space of the yard, the idle space area is quite large, not to mention the grand occasion of empty container stacking like a mountain.

In addition to the lack of counters affecting the export of foreign trade enterprises, there are other factors behind the disappearance of the container tru

During the interview, a relevant person from Yiwu Commerce Bureau told the securities times that from the current export situation of Yiwu, the export situation this year is still higher than that in previous years. However, with the cancellation of some export commodity subsidy policies and the replication and promotion of market procurement pilot areas, it also brings the pressure of diversion of goods.

At the same time, the above-mentioned persons of Yiwu commerce bureau also pointed out to reporters that the biggest feature of Yiwu market is the distribution center. Although many enterprises switch to other customs to go to sea, the source of these exports is still to complete container consolidation in Yiwu. Therefore, these foreign traders who switch to other ports