South African ports are congested for a long time, with more than 70,000 containers stranded! The RMB exchange rate has risen sharply, surpassing the euro! 丨 Foreign Trade News Express

South African ports have been congested for a long time, with more than 70,000 containers stranded!

 

It is understood that the Port of Durban in South Africa handles about 60% of South Africa's container volume/transportation volume. As the number of containers increases, the Port of Durban, the largest port on the east coast of South Africa, is facing the problem of worsening congestion.

 

South African port officials report that current congestion at Durban’s container port may not ease until 2024 or even February next year.

 

In view of the situation at the Port of Durban, shipping companies such as Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM recently announced the imposition of congestion charges.

 

 

 

Recently, the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) estimated thatThere are currently nearly 71,000 containers stranded at the Port of Durban or on ships waiting offshore, and 96 ships are anchored outside the port waiting, with economic losses of about 98 million rand (5.32 million US dollars) per day.

 

And many of the containers are filled with merchandise that retailers hoped to sell during the holiday season, but time is running out.Therefore, some retailers have decided to use air freight to ship goods before Christmas.

 

It is understood that the Port of Durban experienced "unusually windy and rainy" weather last month, resulting in a loss of 159 hours of operating time, more than 20 ships waiting to enter the port, and an average delay of 18 days.

 

 

The port of Cape Town was also affected by bad weather, and the arrival of new equipment was delayed until the second week of December. However, congestion has eased relatively.

 

It can therefore be said that the congestion appears to be due to bad weather affecting operations and equipment problems encountered by port operator Transnet.

 

In response, SAAFF said that this crisis is more serious than the strike in October last year because the huge economic cost caused by the 96 ships waiting outside our ports cannot be underestimated and the current situation must be put in perspective.

 

He concluded, “We must improve operational efficiency and increase throughput, otherwise the trade, transport and logistics sectors will continue to inhibit South Africa’s much-needed economic growth.”

 

SAAFF further urged stakeholders to work together to help ease congestion but noted that finding a solution would take some time.

 

Its head of research and development said there was some hope, but only a little in the short term: Air freight might help ease some of the congestion.

 

However, he noted that small and medium-sized enterprise shippers were the most affected by the delays, and air freight was not a "viable option" for many.

 

He stressed that the congestion can and will be resolved, but it may not be until the end of January or early February.

 

 

Recently, Maersk announced that it would impose a congestion charge of US$200 to US$400 per container on containers shipped to South Africa from destinations outside East and West Africa.

 

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company followed suit and imposed a similar congestion charge, announcing that it would take effect from December 3, 2023 (bill of lading date) and the fee would be US$210/TEU.

 

In addition, Maersk and other carriers have canceled port calls and announced changes to rotation schedules.

 

 

Subsequently, French shipping company CMA CGM also announced the imposition of a new port congestion surcharge on South African ports. It will implement a PCS of US$200 per TEU for all ships bound for Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town ports from December 3 (cargo loading date).

 

The surcharge will apply to dry and refrigerated containers arriving at the three South African ports from all over the world (except East and West Africa). In addition, for cargo from the United States and other regions, the surcharge will take effect from December 6.

 

In addition, Hapag-Lloyd also announced that the congestion surcharge will take effect from all origins to South Africa. This fee will apply to all dry cargo containers from December 8, 2023 until further notice.

 

Therefore, faced with port congestion and the peak season, in order to ensure that goods arrive at their destination more safely and efficiently, sellers need to carefully select logistics providers and plan supply chain logistics in advance to allow sufficient delivery time.

 

Huifeng International hereby reminds you that when necessary, multi-channel and multimodal transport methods can be adopted to avoid restrictions that affect timeliness.

 

 

 

The RMB exchange rate is rising sharply

 

Since the beginning of this year, with the Federal Reserve's multiple strong interest rate hikes, non-US currencies have shown certain pressure, and the RMB has weakened against the US dollar. The onshore RMB reached a peak of 7.3537 against the US dollar on October 16, while the offshore RMB bottomed out on September 8, reaching 7.3862.

 

Entering November, the RMB continued to perform strongly against the US dollar, with both onshore and offshore RMB exchange rates rising significantly, from 7.32 and 7.34 to around 7.13 respectively.Since November 1, the onshore and offshore RMB have appreciated by 2.48% and 2.75% respectively, while the US dollar index has weakened sharply by 3.23% during the same period.

 

 

Since 2017, November to January have been the traditional months for foreign exchange settlement, and the RMB has appreciated significantly, with an average appreciation of 1.2% and 1.1% in the past six years.

 

Tan Yaling, an independent economist at the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, pointed out thatThe current rebound of the RMB is a range and periodic fluctuation, and the trend of depreciation has not yet ended. However, she expects that the RMB exchange rate may enter a formal appreciation channel in December.

 

A person in charge of an electronic consumer products export company revealed that due to the sharp rise in the RMB exchange rate in November, under the same export business scale,The amount of foreign exchange they received from exports that month was about 2.4% less than in the past."At present, the proportion of RMB settlement in our company's foreign trade is about 15%, and we plan to increase it by another 10 percentage points by the end of next year."

 

The proportion of trade between China and Russia settled in RMB has increased 25 times in the past decade. In 2014, RMB trade settlement accounted for only 3% between China and Russia, but according to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, in the first half of 2023, this proportion has reached 75%! If the cross-border trade between China and Russia is settled in local currency, it has exceeded 90%.

 

Just in September this year, the RMB even surpassed the euro to become the world's second largest trade financing currency.

 

The best support for a country's currency is always safe and healthy economic fundamentals.

 

 

 

Central banks of China and Saudi Arabia sign bilateral currency swap agreement

 

According to CCTV News, with the approval of the State Council, the People's Bank of China and the Saudi Arabian Central Bank recently signed a bilateral local currency swap agreement with a swap size of 50 billion yuan/26 billion Saudi riyals. The agreement is valid for three years and can be extended with the consent of both parties. The central bank said that the establishment of a bilateral local currency swap arrangement between China and Saudi Arabia will help strengthen financial cooperation between the two countries, expand the use of local currencies between China and Saudi Arabia, and promote trade and investment facilitation between the two sides.

 

According to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China has become Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner since 2013. In 2022, the bilateral trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia reached US$116.04 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33.1%. Among them, China's exports reached US$37.99 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.7%, and imports reached US$78.05 billion, a year-on-year increase of 37%. In the first quarter of 2023, the bilateral trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia reached US$27.33 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%, of which China's exports reached US$10.61 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39.9%, and imports reached US$16.72 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%.

 

 

 

Thailand imposes anti-dumping duties on Wuxi steel sheets and tin-coated steel sheets from China

 

On October 25, 2023, the Thai Dumping and Subsidy Review Committee issued an announcement stating that it had decided to re-implement the Tin Free Steel Plate (Thai: สินค้าเหล็กแผ่นชุบหรือเคลือบด้วยโครเมียมทั้งชนิดเป็นม้วนและไม่เป็นม้วน, English: Tin Free Steel Plate The anti-dumping measures against China Steel (Steel) are based on CIF (cost, insurance and freight) prices, with the tax rates ranging from 4.53% to 24.73% for China, 3.95% to 17.06% for South Korea, and 18.52% for the EU (please refer to the final ruling announcement for detailed tax rates). The measures will take effect on November 13, 2023.

 

On October 25, 2023, the Thai Dumping and Subsidy Review Committee announced that it had decided to re-implement tin-coated steel sheets and coils (Thai: เหล็กแผ่นชุบหรือเคลือบด้วยดีบุกทั้งชนิดเป็นม้วนและไม่เป็นม้วน, Reference English: Steel Sheets Plated or Coated with Tin in both Coils and Non Coils), and impose anti-dumping duties based on CIF, with tax rates ranging from 2.45% to 17.46% for mainland China, 4.28% to 20.45% for Taiwan, 5.82% for the EU, and 8.71% to 22.67% for South Korea (for detailed tax rates, please refer to the final ruling announcement of this case). The measure will take effect on November 13, 2023.

 

 

Used cars are gaining momentum in overseas sales

 

Since the official launch of my country's used car exports in 2019, the scope of used car export regions has been expanded twice. According to data released by the 2023 China (Dongjiang) Used Car Export Industry Development Forum, as of now, there are 39 regions in the country that have carried out used car export business, more than 400 used car export companies, and the scale of used car exports has increased from more than 3,000 in 2019 to nearly 70,000 in 2022.

 

In September, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on Used Car Exports (draft for comments), which promoted the further liberalization of used car export business. The state has increased its support for the used car export industry, and enterprises that meet the entry standards may become export entities.

 

 

India amends some medical equipment and electrical product standards

 

Recently, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) issued a communiqué announcing the revision of some medical device and electrical product standards. The revised standards will be officially implemented on October 2, 2023, and the previous implementation standards will be gradually abolished.

 

 

 

Source: Focus, Foreign Shipping, Network, etc.

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