Maersk, the shipping group, recently reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Maersk said the number of containers it shipped in the January-March period was 9 per cent lower than a year earlier, while rates were down 37 per cent on average.

The company reported record profits last year as surging customer demand and epidemi-related port blockages pushed up freight rates. But since then, freight rates have plummeted in the wake of the global recession and the collapse of an import bubble in the United States and other top consumers triggered by the pandemic.

Demand is weak under inflationary pressures abroad

Data showed that China's foreign trade maintained growth in the first four months of this year, with total exports reaching 7.76 trillion yuan, up 10.6 percent. Exports were particularly strong in March, rising 23.4 per cent from a year earlier, well above market expectations.

But the stronger-than-expected export growth has been matched by still-low shipping prices and a glut of empty containers sitting on terminals. Many foreign traders and freight forwarders also said they did not feel the warmth of the export growth.

While export figures have soared, it is also true that many of the containers that were once "hard to get" are now empty. Against the backdrop of weak global economic recovery and huge inflationary pressures in Europe and the US, demand from overseas consumer markets remains weak. The Euro-American market is precisely one of the important markets of our traditional manufacturing export, which aggravates the large number of container vacancies.

In March, the General Administration of Customs also responded to the problem of empty containers piling up at the port, saying that this was due to the large volume of new containers put into the port in the previous period, the low cost of domestic storage, the short-term return of empty containers in large quantities after the epidemic situation eased abroad, and the seasonal rule.

"For now, the impact of high inflationary pressures on consumption is immediate. Last year we thought exports were weak because the inventory overhang of the past few years had not been worked down, and now it looks like the foreign consumer has no money in his pocket." An official of a company said that at the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19, the efficiency of major shipping routes fell sharply due to factors such as supply chain disruptions. However, the situation began to reverse in the second half of 2021. As crude oil prices fell, the pressure of the global supply chain gradually eased and demand began to decline, the container market changed from "one container hard to get" to "empty container pile up". Superimposed last year's high base, CCFI freight index year-on-year once appeared about 70% decline.

Empty containers are not enough to show that the overall export is not smooth, but it is indeed a realistic portrayal of the difficulties faced by traditional manufacturing exports. The further recovery of overseas market demand is the biggest expectation of the industry at present.

In addition, the Economic Information Daily published an article in late April saying that since March, the level of empty containers at many Chinese ports has fallen from the peak, and the volume of containers used is gradually recovering. Experts expect that as China's economic operation continues to improve overall, foreign trade steady scale and excellent structure measures continue to strengthen, the good momentum of foreign trade is expected to continue, export container will gradually increase, the growth of the main indicators of coastal port production will pick up this year.