China’s weight in international trade is increasingly accentuated, with the addition that in industrial terms it has a weight, often above 80%, in the manufacture of essential components for the normal functioning of industries in all markets worldwide.
For the Chinese, the celebration of the New Year of the Tiger thus takes on a special relevance, as it is for the Chinese people the basis of their designs.
Thus, we would like to remind you that the Chinese Tiger New Year will soon be celebrated from 31 January to 6 February, as every year this holiday period in China represents a turning point in the policies applied in industry, trade and the logistics supply chain in general and, most especially, in international maritime transport.
We will have to watch closely to see how the return to predictable economic growth unfolds, especially whether or not there are areas of the country where, as happened recently in Beilun, in the port district of Ningbo, which was confined and closed by COVID. As we know, this variant of Omicron is highly contagious and Beijing does not want to risk widespread transmission among the population, so it has a zero-tolerance policy by establishing strict confinements of the population.
In this scenario, freight rates for imports from Asia to the Mediterranean behave in the same way as in 2021, so we do not foresee an immediate reduction. These high costs associated with other factors, such as energy, increasingly project an increase in the inflation rate over a longer period than initially expected, which does not allow for an optimistic view of the economy in the year of the Tiger. On the export side, the situation is also very similar to last year, especially with the US and South America, where there is also a significant shortage of containers, but especially of vessel space, so we encourage our exporters to book as far in advance as possible.
In the meantime, we will continue to offer our best service oriented to work day by day taking care of every cargo and every clearance of our clients, with the hope that this new Chinese year, the year of the Tiger, as a symbol of strength and courage will bring us many solutions to face a year of great uncertainty.
Roma Andrade Customs Broker