China News Service Paris, August 24 Title: Visiting the Port of Le Havre, France, Sensing the Tense "Pulse" of the Global Maritime System
China News Service reporter Li Yang
The tension in the global maritime transport system in the new crown epidemic is currently highly concerned by the outside world, and a reporter from China News Agency recently visited the port of Le Havre in France to observe the complex challenges facing the logistics and transportation and shipping industry.
The reporter saw at the port terminal of Le Havre that although the epidemic in France rebounded again, the port operation was still stable as usual, with a number of large container ships docked at the terminal, and the dock workers were working intensely to hoist containers from ships calling the port.
The tension in the global maritime transport system in the new crown epidemic is currently highly concerned by the outside world, and a reporter from China News Agency recently visited the port of Le Havre in France to observe the complex challenges facing the logistics and transportation and shipping industry. Pictured here is the port of Le Havre marina taken on August 13. Photo by Li Yang, a reporter from China News Service
George Dennis, commercial manager of Le Havre Port, told reporters that since the outbreak of the epidemic, Le Havre Port has always been able to stick to the working state, but the amount of operation will change, and the port has never been closed due to the epidemic. He said that the epidemic prevention measures in the port of Le Havre were strictly implemented in accordance with official French regulations, and employees who were confirmed to be infected would be required to quarantine; most of the employees had been vaccinated against the new crown.
The port of Le Havre is an important port in France, with the second largest port throughput in France, and is also regarded as the "outer port of Paris" due to its location at the mouth of the Seine. Due to the successive strikes and epidemics in 2020, the production operations in the port of Le Havre were affected to a certain extent that year, but in the second quarter of 2021, it has basically returned to the pre-epidemic production level.
However, due to the recent rebound of the epidemic in many parts of the world due to the rebound of the mutated virus strain Delta, many countries have re-strengthened epidemic prevention and control measures, and some important ports have been forced to temporarily close due to the epidemic, but the demand for goods in many places has increased unabated, and a large number of cargo ships, especially container ships, can only wait in line outside the port; the cargo congestion problem in many major ports in European countries, especially in important ports such as Rotterdam, is serious.
The port of Le Havre is also inevitably affected by the overall environment of the global shipping industry, with terminal yard occupancy rates now reaching around 85%. The reporter noted that there are indeed many containers piled up at the port terminal, which has occupied most of the space in the yard; but there are no cargo ships in the port that need to wait in line to enter the port. According to reports, the port of Le Havre terminal operation can currently be completed according to schedule, and ships can leave the port quickly after completing the operation, without a long wait.
Yao Hongzhi, general manager of COSCO SHIPPING France, said in an interview with reporters that le Havre Port has now accumulated more than 6,000 empty containers, which is difficult to restore circulation in the short term; at the same time, the price of shipping continues to rise; the current container transportation price on the China-Europe route has risen several times compared with 2020, and such a high freight rate was "unimaginable" in the past.
Yao Hongzhi revealed that the cost of transporting a container from China to northwestErn Europe in 2020 is about 2,000 to 3,000 US dollars, and in 2021, it has risen all the way, and has now risen from 6,000 US dollars to 13,000 US dollars, and the sea freight rate has risen sharply; the cost of shipping containers from China to the United States is higher.
For the current tension in the shipping system and how the sharp rise in maritime freight rates is caused, Shen Zhijiang, deputy general manager of COSCO SHIPPING ContainerShip France, analyzed to reporters that although shipping companies are trying to increase transport capacity, due to epidemic prevention and control and other reasons, the processing capacity of many ports is still limited; the ship punctuality rate has dropped sharply due to epidemic prevention and control and other reasons, resulting in more serious port congestion; the congestion problem in important transit ports in Rotterdam, Singapore and other important transit ports in Europe and Asia will also bring congestion to other ports." Knock-on effect".
Shen Zhijiang said that COSCO France is currently mainly trying to solve the problem of the circulation of empty containers, through careful and careful scheduling of empty containers at le Havre Port, increasing the intensity of transshipment, under the condition of ensuring transportation safety and reasonable transportation capacity, as far as possible to transport empty containers back to China, in order to resume circulation.
The issue of crew rotation in ocean shipping has also become an important challenge, and COSCO SHIPPING France also needs to deal with it. After rotating at the port of Le Havre, COSCO SHIPPING's crew needed to go to Paris and then take a civil aviation flight back to China. Due to the current shortage of Chinese and foreign civil aviation flights, how to arrange for them to return home smoothly in accordance with The epidemic prevention regulations at home and abroad is also a difficult problem that COSCO SHIPPING France needs to focus on. In order to solve the relevant problems as soon as possible, Yao Hongzhi and Shen Zhijiang called from time to time to send messages to guide the details of specific matters such as crew isolation, virus detection, and flight booking.
There are reports that global ports face their biggest crisis in more than half a century. As for whether the global maritime transport system can resume normal operation in the short term, Yao Hongzhi said that it will depend on the changes in the epidemic and the global economic situation. He believes that if the recent epidemic can be alleviated, the global economy continues to recover, and the maritime system is gradually back on track, otherwise the current tension will continue for some time.
With the arrival of Western traditional festivals such as Christmas and Chinese traditional festival Spring Festival, the demand for goods between China and foreign countries is bound to further increase, and ports such as Le Havre Port are bound to face greater challenges. Yao Hongzhi told reporters that COSCO SHIPPING and other enterprises will strive to ensure maritime transportation, maintain the smooth flow of supply chains, serve the new pattern of "double circulation" development, strengthen cooperation with ports such as Le Havre Port, and promote Sino-French and Sino-European trade to remain stable during the epidemic. (End)
Source: China News Network