Maersk sees no let up in surging cost of shipping goods

Transport containers are transported on a Maersk Line vessel by the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photograph

LONDON/DUBLIN, June 22 (Reuters) – The price of delivery items has surged 25-30% for the reason that begin of the pandemic on account of array of inflationary pressures which can be “unlikely to abate within the quick time period,” world No. 1 container delivery firm Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) advised Reuters on Wednesday.

Maersk is considered as a bellwether for international commerce because it transports items for retailers and client corporations from Walmart (WMT.N) and Nike (NKE.N) to Unilever (ULVR.L).

Increased provide chain prices have rocked the retail and packaged items industries for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 outbreak, significantly over the previous yr as economies have began to get better, with logjams at key ports holding up containers of all the pieces from meals and well being merchandise to toys.

“I believe some extra inflation (will) come by within the years to come back,” Vincent Clerc, chief govt of Ocean and Logistics at Maersk stated in an interview in the course of the Client Items Discussion board’s World Summit convention in Dublin.

“Logistics may be very vitality and labour intensive, and people are two of the areas of the financial system which can be topic to vital inflationary strain.”

Clerc stated that whereas congestion is bettering in some elements of the world, it’s turning into worse in others — for example, the East Coast of the USA and in Northern Europe.

“We’re speaking right here in regards to the availability of truck drivers, the supply of capability to maneuver the products by to the inland infrastructure,” he stated.

Clerc additionally stated that for the reason that begin of “commerce tensions” with China, international corporations have been more and more reducing the proportion of supplies and items they export from the nation, hoping to diversify away.

“We see a bent, actually, in direction of extra even distribution and a diminished reliance on one or two particular areas.”

Reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Richa Naidu in London
Modifying by Louise Heavens, Mark Potter, Alexandra Hudson

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