{"id":9306,"date":"2022-01-19T07:30:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T07:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=9306"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:45:19","slug":"when-will-shipping-between-the-uk-and-china-recover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/when-will-shipping-between-the-uk-and-china-recover\/","title":{"rendered":"When will shipping between the UK and China recover?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disruption created by Covid-19 lockdowns and port closures has brought the global shipping business to its knees, so Joe Cash<\/strong> asks: when shipping between the UK and China will recover?<\/h2>\n

The cost of shipping<\/a> between the UK and China continues to test the resilience of companies of all sizes, be they from Liaocheng or Liverpool. Shipping containers remain in short supply. As a result, the cost of securing passage on a boat from Felixstowe to Foshan, for example, has risen by over 400% since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Many UK companies have already reported that this spike in costs has priced them out of the China market. Many more are precipitously close to following suit. The disruption created by lockdowns and port closures the world over has brought the global shipping business to its knees. Unfortunately, the industry does not look like it is about to make a hard turn to change course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The shipping industry finds itself caught in a vicious web. It is a business that is used to managing boom or bust cycles usually caused by increasing fuel prices or reduced consumer demand. Larger ships, fewer sailings, and significantly faster or slower journey times to conserve or burn fuel to meet projections calculated by supercomputers had become standard practice to reduce shipping companies\u2019 exposure to such factors.<\/p>\n

However, Covid-19 and the steps countries have taken to contain its spread \u2013 ranging from localised lockdowns to prohibiting imports \u2013 have proven to be too disruptive across too many variables. Now, the shipping industry’s tendency to operate at an enormous scale and in a highly standardised way means multiple elements of its business model are closer to the bust end of the spectrum. There is also no obvious solution to fix this sorry state of affairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n