NEWS BLOG

Nothing has laid bare the need for demand forecasting quite like the recent global shipping container shortage. With consumers given no option but to shop online, and ports around the world subject to border closures, Covid blindsided global supply chains like a rogue wave. As the world slowly emerges blinking from the pandemic, is there an end in sight to the global container shortage?

Over the years, car transport businesses have come up with a number of car racking systems to increase the safety and capacity of shipping container transport. Why? To increase the economic viability of shipping containers as an alternative to Ro-Ro transport. A 40 foot standard shipping container, with 8 feet of space in both width and height, is the equivalent to about two parking spaces. Therefore, without utilising racking, you will only ever be able to get two cars in a container; a costly proposition if you need to ship multiple vehicles.

High shipping costs are not the only consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. The cost of consumables and construction materials has also soared, with prices of wood, in particular, reaching exorbitant levels. Since the start of the pandemic, wood prices have skyrocketed – with some metrics suggesting increases of up to 700% - in part because disruption to supply chains has meant a significant shortfall in available resources.

Container shipping for cars is an attractive alternative to RoRo because it reduces the amount of handling and transfers needed throughout a journey. Container shipping costs are therefore lower in terms of damaged stock. However, shipping containers come with a serious capacity issue – they can only transport two or maybe three vehicles at a time. This can add up to higher per unit costs compared with RoRo, which is why container shipping isn’t extensively used in automotive logistics.

It goes without saying that Trans-Rak steel framed car racking systems for containerised transport are the starting point for safe, secure and efficient transport. Although the great benefit of using the Trans-Rak system is optimising the payload within shipping containers, this is not the priority when loading vehicles. 

Global events in 2020 created the perfect storm in the shipping industry, leading to rocketing costs in excess of 350%, as lockdowns crippled international trade, demand for goods from the Far East soared, and the Evergreen incident in the Suez Canal caused months of delays. With the cost of container shipping still high, businesses that need to ship cars overseas face financial meltdown if they can’t find a more cost-effective solution that maximises their use of container space.

On the surface, the Brexit deal did not impose any additional tariffs on trading vehicles between Britain and the EU, which was of great relief to all in the automobile industry. However, on closer inspection, strict Rules of Origin requirements (RoO) impose worrying barriers to trade that may have serious repercussions on the vehicle market.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a large economic bloc comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia. The members – which include Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Brunei, and Cambodia – all have in common a shared coastline in the South Pacific or South China Sea. The shipping lanes that run between the thousands of small islands in the bloc are strongly dominated by container ships, and the ASEAN region encompasses some of the most important trade routes in the world for international car transportation.

Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the carbon footprints of their supply chains. This is a challenge for car manufacturers and sellers, as vehicle manufacturing is a truly global enterprise. Shipping is one of the biggest global contributors to CO² and NO² emissions. Is there a way of transporting a fleet of cars responsibly?

Are you an entrepreneur considering overseas car trading as a venture? Cars can be big business. The UK in particular has a rich transport heritage, with a strong market in the USA, Europe, India, and Asia. Whether the aim is to ship classic vehicles, top-end models, or everyday transport, these trade routes are bursting with opportunities.