Coronavirus and the Container Industry
Last Updated on October 4, 2023
Coronavirus is affecting the UK in many ways. The market for shipping containers is not immune to the effect Coronavirus is having on the country.
If you have read our article about buying new containers, you will know that our new containers are manufactured in China. The Coronavirus was originally discovered in China in January 2020.
In February 2020 there were around 800,000 shipping containers sitting on Shanghai quay waiting to be loaded onto the ships. Due to the lack of workforce in Shanghai the ship loading has been severely delayed. This significant downturn has resulted in a much lower number of containers being loaded onto ships for export.
During January and February 2020 we were not affected by the delays, as there were plenty of containers available for sale in the UK. February and March are our busiest time of the year, which means that many of the containers in the UK have been sold or rented out. Normally the containers sold during this busy period would be replaced by the new ones coming in from China. Because of the delays in China, new shipping containers are not arriving particularly swiftly.
This lack of ‘new’ shipping containers entering the market means that our supply chain has the potential to grind to a halt. If this happens our suppliers have little option other than to significantly increase prices.
Our suppliers are forecasting further increases throughout 2020 and possibly into 2021.
If you are looking to buy a container, then we recommend you purchase now before the price goes up even further.
20ft new Shipping container
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