Imagebild Container vor Himmel
 

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Container Shortage & high Costs

What's the reason?

Delayed deliveries of goods, supply bottlenecks and lack of availability. These are words you hear a lot at the moment when it comes to global trade.

Freight rates have multiplied, containers are hard to get, warehouses are running empty. This is the current situation for many companies - inside and outside the PV industry.  PV projects are threatened by interruptions and affected by rising costs.

What are the reasons?

Our global supply chains are in disarray. The reasons are complex and varied.

Triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns imposed in early 2020, global sales and trade fell sharply. Shortly thereafter in June 2020, global freight volumes rose again. First in China, then in the rest of the world. This led to broken links in supply chains.

The main causes of container shortages and high transportation costs include:

  • Changes in people’s buying behaviour
  • Decreased number of available containers
  • Decreased number of cargo ships
  • Congested ports

The congestion on the Suez Canal is exacerbating the problem of delivery delays and disruptions in world trade. Even though the canal has been reopened, the logistical consequences are still being felt.

In our video we explain the reasons in detail:

Our customers are our top priority. That is why we are working hard to ensure good availability of our products and are adding more suppliers and products to our portfolio so that we can offer a solution for any bottleneck or transport-related delay. However, in the current situation of skyrocketing transport costs, this means that we are often faced with the decision of either buying the goods at a higher price than we originally purchased them, or rejecting the goods and not having them transported to Europe in the first place.

So what can you do? Stay flexible in the choice of suitable products, adjust your prices to the availability and renegotiate offers with your customers.

Feel free to contact your account manager to discuss quantities and availabilities or contact us via our contact form.

In our video with our CSO Jan Brunner you will also get further important information about the current market situation.