Statistics from import and export data show that in the first 8 months of this year, orders for this kind of goods have skyrocketed!

According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs, from January to August 2021, my country‘s auto parts exports amounted to 316.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.6%; compared with 31.22 billion yuan in the same period in 2019, an increase of more than 9 times.

Zhaofeng Electromechanical in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, is an auto parts manufacturer. The person in charge of the company said that since the second half of 2020, export orders have exploded on a large scale. At present, the company‘s more than 40 production lines are operating at full capacity.

Kong Chenhuan, general manager of a wheel bearing company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, also said that the current hand-held orders have been queued to three months later, and the order growth rate exceeds 80%.

Regarding the surge in demand for orders, Kong Chenhuan believes that one is due to the recovery of previous orders, and the other is due to the low overall inventory rate in overseas terminal markets.

According to the solution, due to the shortage of chips, global automobile production is declining. Therefore, the demand for parts and components that provide supporting services to automakers has decreased. However, the demand for new energy vehicles and maintenance aftermarket is still strong.

Zheng Hao, deputy director of the Shanghai Customs Statistics Office, said that in the first eight months of this year, the Shanghai port exported 96.6 billion yuan of auto parts, a year-on-year increase of 36.4%, mainly to the United States, the European Union, Japan and other countries and regions.

Although the volume of export orders for auto parts has exploded, companies have had mixed feelings, mainly due to prominent issues such as rising prices of raw materials.

In the workshop of the Sanyuan Vehicle Purifier Company in Taizhou, Zhejiang, the machines roared. Currently, the company has orders for more than 20,000 sets, with a daily output of more than 800 sets.

At the beginning of this year, affected by the rising prices of precious metals such as palladium and rhodium, steel and other raw materials and the rising freight rates, although orders were sufficient, production costs increased by at least 20%.

According to reports, Buxiu Steel last year was 8,200 yuan per ton, and this year it has risen to 14,000 yuan per ton. Iron plate last year was 4,200 yuan per ton, and recently it has risen to 8,300 yuan. As an important element in the production of purifier products, the price of precious metal rhodium has also tripled. Last year it reached 2,000 yuan per gram and reached 6,000 yuan per gram this year.

Immediately after CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd said that it would suspend spot freight rates and Maersk would prefer to sign long-term contracts.

Since CMA CGM announced the suspension of further increases in spot freight rates last week, Hapag-Lloyd joined the DAF fleet and stated that it would impose an upper limit on the spot freight rates for container cargo transportation.

In an interview with Lowe‘s Daily News, Hapag-Lloyd said that we have not raised further freight rates for several weeks.

Hapag-Lloyd said: "We believe that the spot freight has peaked. We do not seek further increases in freight rates. We hope that the market will slowly begin to calm down."

Unlike CMA CGM’s clear commitment to suspend freight increases in the next five months, Hapag-Lloyd stated that the freight freeze will take effect "temporarily."

Spot freight accounts for a large part of container cargo. Driven by market forces, demand has soared in the past year, pushing ocean freight to unprecedented levels.

Rolf Habben Jansen, Hapag-Lloyd‘s chief executive officer, seems to have ruled out any form of price control. He said that there is a huge market demand for space.

"If we try not to follow the market, then we will get too many bookings that our system crashes. But now, there are very few spaces left for additional cargo transportation, which leads to crazy freight rates."

On the other hand, Maersk said it has signed long-term contracts with more customers.

The pressure in the container market, characterized by shortage of containers and insufficient capacity, has pushed spot prices to a new level.

Therefore, Maersk pointed out in a comment that it has signed long-term contracts with more customers than before.

"We are committed to achieving business transformation and becoming a full-service container logistics integrator, which is why our focus is to create long-term value for our customers. In order to achieve this goal, we are striving for a larger share of long-term contracts. One share has increased to about 60% of our total order

. "Maersk said.