Shipping container Inflation! (700%)

[mmc45414]

If my kids wanted to skip college and go into a trade, I would absolutely point them towards metal fabrication.

My influencers were adamant that I need to complete a degree, with no other direction. I would have been better off doing machine trades in the vocational school. I would have ended up in sales, but I would have had a more grounded foundation than being a college dropout.

[Welder]

Welding is a great occupation as long as you don't mind various-degree burn scars all over you, the need to either breathe carcinogens daily or wear a (gasp!) respirator daily, or the constant attention of womenfolk.

[SD]

Fast forward 6-months from the OP thread, inflation has continued to increase, with current world events any predictions what the next 6-months will be like heading into Fall?

Since China makes darn near everything sold in the U.S., it has to get here.



Yowza! A 700% increase. Buckle up the ride is getting rough.

Costco, Nike and FedEx are warning there’s more inflation set to hit consumers as holidays approach
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/24/cost...-approach.html

[RoyGBiv]

Fast forward 6-months from the OP thread, inflation has continued to increase, with current world events any predictions what the next 6-months will be like heading into Fall?

January containers Shanghai to Houston were in the $30,000 range. Today, around $18,000. I've seen less but not tried to book one yet.

Forecasting the future requires a better crystal ball than I possess. In normal times, we'd see another peak in August/September heading into October Golden Week and maintaining through early December (Christmas). These are not normal times, what with war in Europe, China siding with Russia, fuel costs doubling.....

[theJanitor]

I was quoted $12000 for a 20' reefer from Thailand to Honolulu. that's $7000 than my last one, late last year

[JTMcC]

Fuel is about to be (IS now) the kicker.
We are currently welding up over 2000 columns, made in and shipped from china. Shipped just before the west coast ports slammed shut, shipped on cheap bunker oil, RIP.
Now.... we live in another world. Shortage of components shipped for the structure? They'll pay Americans to make them at American pricing. The fuel increase plus the 18 month wait on a fast track project? Nope.

Remember kids, china made is slave labor, political prisoner, "we're semi-free but we can't afford hamburgers on Friday for the family" made.
If your conscience can stomach THAT, just to save money? Well that's on you, we choose not to. It for sure costs us more, and we gladly pay it.

The only reason we're standing up 2000+ chinese columns is it's already landed and somebody has to do the work otherwise the big corps will try to get philipino or indonesnesian or chinese hands on H2 visa's claiming a "labor shortage"

But we charge full tilt American rates plus benefits (+ some for dealing with the low quality china steel) and they can take it or leave it, they took it on this project.

A 50 LB can of American made Lincoln 1/8" 7018 welding rod cost's me about $215.00 dollars today/$160.00 10 months ago. My diesel costs are heading thru the roof. Both have no upper limit right now.
We'll buy thousands of gallons of diesel before our current job is complete and thousands of LB's of welding consumables but in the end it's all worth it if the idiotic biden voters can't afford groceries and gas and say "hey wait a minute"?! And use their brains for the first time in their liberal voting lives

[RoyGBiv]

Had a long chat with our forwarder this morning.... I had to go to the gym afterwards and just zone out.

We're working on a project that involves shipping heavy things via the Panama Canal... Forwarder tells me that although container prices are down a bit from January, steamship lines are not taking maxed-out containers, in favor of taking on more, lighter containers. That if we wanted to ship 20+ tons, and have any chance of a reliable booking, we'd probably have to split the shipment. We have about 200 tons to ship. Instead of stuffing 8 containers, we're likely looking at 11 or 12. Container rate is down 20%, but we need to use 50% more containers for the same shipment. Or so. Fak!

Looking at options via a West coast port or MX that avoid the 5 week Long Beach (LA) penalty.

[Joe in PNG]

We had to split one shipment due to the weight thing.

[peterb]

The Biden-Harris Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced the launch of a major supply chain initiative, Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW), to help speed up delivery times and reduce consumer costs.

FLOW is an information sharing initiative to pilot key freight information exchange between parts of the goods movement supply chain. It includes eighteen initial participants that represent diverse perspectives across the supply chain, including private businesses, trucking, warehousing, and logistics companies, ports, and more — with the hope and expectation to include more partners going forward.

These key stakeholders will work together with the Administration to develop an information exchange to ease supply chain congestion, speed up the movement of goods, and ultimately cut costs for Americans.

Initial partners of FLOW include the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Georgia Ports Authority as well as various industry specialists, terminal operators, carriers and logistics providers.

https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matte...ain-initiative

[RoyGBiv]

This is the problem.... for 40% of imported goods... Note this was published in 2015.

https://archive.kpcc.org/news/2015/0...s-angeles-and/

I'm sure Mayor Pete is on it as hard as Mr Trump.