The stricter social restrictions imposed by China to contain the latest Covid-19 outbreak, which is in its fourth week and involves more than a dozen cities, has hit the transport sector hard, with yet another increase in freight prices maritime.
According to information from the company Port Trade, the price will be around $500 more expensive in Brazil starting this Sunday (15). “The increase will be for the unloading of containers. Depending on the shipping company and the type of equipment, this value could exceed US$11,” explained Cleber Baldotto, the company’s operational manager.
In the last week alone, more than 600 new infections of the disease were registered by the Chinese government, an increase of more than 85% compared to the total number of cases registered in the previous week. In China, the Delta variant has already been detected in more than a dozen Chinese cities since the first cases were found in Nanjing at the end of July.
The outbreak has led authorities to step up containment measures to combat the spread of the virus, which has affected the daily lives of professionals working at the country's main ports. This week, for example, China closed one of the terminals at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port and quarantined around 19 workers after detecting just one case of Covid-XNUMX among its employees.
The port is the third largest in the world and 25% of its movement takes place at the terminal, which was closed indefinitely. The shutdown worried the financial market and affected foreign exchange trading. “Some problems are happening in other locations. In Shenzhen, for example, there are restrictions due to health surveillance,” Baldotto highlighted.
Photovoltaic equipment distributors
The events are already being followed and monitored by several distributors. Roberto Marcel Caurim, CEO of Bluesun, explains that the company currently maintains an office in Shenzhen to facilitate the import of solar equipment into China. “What we are doing is monitoring the ports. If one of them is closed or has problems, we send the equipment to another location by land transport so as not to miss the delivery deadline”, he explains.
In turn, Fábio Delgado, director of Techlux, assesses that the sea freight price crisis is directly related to the Covid-19 outbreak and also to other issues, such as North American self-consumption of Chinese products. He further explains that when one port is affected, most of the others end up being affected as well.
“Most ports are interconnected and when one is hit, the others end up being hit too. At the beginning of the week we had an early coronavirus outbreak in Ningbo and the Chinese authorities are very drastic. There were few cases, but they closed the port for a few days. This only contributed to more equipment shortages and an increase in prices, including solar panels in Brazil”, he highlighted.
Another point mentioned by the executive, which also explains the increase in the price of solar panels, is the current price of polysilicon, a raw material for the production of photovoltaic cells. “This week, manufacturers announced a new increase in almost all cells. Those who placed an order up until today (Friday) were able to buy at the same price, but those who did not buy will get it with a 6% increase,” he said.
Luiz Scagnolato, CEO of TenBrasil, commented that the solar sector has faced major challenges recently with rising prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “As if the restrictions caused by the disease were not enough, it also affects all global trade, whether in the product that will be shipped, in what was in the port or in production that is now taking time to receive raw materials,” he said.
Beatriz Meneguim, responsible for importing BelEnergy products, commented that the company adopted the strategy of planning and scheduling all shipments in advance, controlling cargo readiness forecasts so that “we can minimize these impacts on our stock of imported materials as much as possible.” ", said.
World problem
It is not only in Brazil that the increase in the price of sea freight has generated concern. In Europe and the United States, the value has also “exploded” in recent months. “We have already received information that freight costs vary between US$ 20 thousand and US$ 23 thousand (…) The increase is much greater in these countries than in Brazil”, revealed Baldotto.
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Since the beginning of the year, the price of polysilicon and sea freight has been rising around the world. Historically, silicon has never been priced so high and it tends to become even more expensive in the coming months. Sea freight rose more than 30% in the first half of the year, jumping from US$6 to US$10 between the months of January and June, according to Port Trade.
