Shandong Lintianzhiyuan CNC Equipment Co

[m_c]

I received a shipping quote last week, and I had to have a sit down.

The quote for shipping alone, was the same as what I paid in total including import duty and VAT to ship a lathe across last year. And this was a potential shipment half the volume, and only a single box, unlike the lathe which was 5 boxes and weight 4 times as much.

I knew prices had gone up, but not that much. I phoned up somebody I know who deals with international trading, they said shipping costs have probably quadrupled since I shipped the lathe. Their best guess estimate for when the industry thinks prices will drop, will be summer next year. They suspect as soon as China's exports are being noticeably hurt by shipping costs, the Chinese government will do something, because with current shipping costs, they're not that competitive.

[JAZZCNC]

Their best guess estimate for when the industry thinks prices will drop, will be summer next year. They suspect as soon as China's exports are being noticeably hurt by shipping costs, the Chinese government will do something, because with current shipping costs, they're not that competitive.

They said this in April and still, nothing has changed, if anything it's got worse and it's not going to get better any time soon. The problem is that shippers have been holding off from shipping waiting for the prices to drop but this is actually keeping the prices high because eventually, they must send the shipments and because there is a shortage of boats they are fighting for space and driving up the costs.

To compound this the Suez canal incident is still causing problems because the government has blamed the shipping companies and made them pay the total costs who obviously are insured for this, however, in response, the insurance companies have driven up the premiums for going through the canal. The upshot is the boats are going the long way around which takes several weeks longer meaning the boats are not getting back to China fast enough to meet the demand so the prices are held high as people fight for available space.! . . . The whole job is FUBAR