The increases in container volume recorded by the ports of Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas this year, the two most important in the Mexican Pacific, occur in a context of “enormous operational challenges” presented by both maritime connection centers, agreement with Eternity Group Mexico .
“This situation is generating constant delays in cargo arrivals (10 to 20 additional days), in addition to recurring rescheduling in container hauling services from port to final destination. This occurs because, despite the fact that the units have an appointment, the overflowing capacity of the terminals prevents the service from being carried out on the original dispatch date,” stated the freight forwarder firm in its monthly report on the trend in the price of freight between Asia and the west coast of Latin America.
Just last August 1, the port of Manzanillo registered one of these operational challenges when the roads in its vicinity collapsed, causing kilometer-long lines of tractor-trailers that spent more than 24 hours stuck. Unofficial versions point to a failure in the customs system as the trigger for this situation, which has been repeated in recent years.
During the first half of this year, the port of Manzanillo had operated one million 935 thousand 710 20-foot containers (TEU) , 11.6% higher than the record for the same period a year earlier; while Lázaro Cárdenas added one million 111 thousand 075 TEU, or an interannual growth of 33.2 percent, according to data from the national port authority.
Meanwhile, Eternity Group Mexico indicated that the price of maritime freight charged last July on the Asia-west coast of Latin America trade route was $6,356 per 40-foot container (FEU) on average, reflecting a variation monthly of -10.21 percent.
At the beginning of the second half of the year, the freight price showed a downward inflection point , after it had shown constant rates of increases, especially during the second quarter.
“As we have previously reported, various shipowners deployed additional capacity by launching new services in response to strong and sustained demand in the trade lane , however, this additional capacity finally managed to invert the curve and generate the desired imbalance between supply and demand. Consequently, the rate began to decrease in search of a new equilibrium point, reaching levels of four thousand dollars per FEU at the end of August,” the company indicated.
In addition, he stated that it will be very interesting to observe how the market reacts, prior to the Golden Week (WK40) , since so far there is no established technical support level. That is, it is not clear if the rate will rebound due to spot demand, will finally find the new equilibrium level or will continue to fall.
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