reply The U.S. shopping season is approaching, and freight between China and the U.S. is tight

According to Japanese media, the coVID-19 outbreak has brought international logistics to a standstill and may affect the year-end shopping season in the US. Cutbacks in shipping and air freight have squeezed capacity, with inventories at US retailers falling to record lows, while container freight rates have hit new highs. If the U.S. market, which leads global consumption, falters in the biggest shopping season of the year, it could slow the global economic recovery.According to a Japanese shipping industry source, container ship prices from China to the United States have almost finished levying off at this time of year, but this year the situation is slightly different, the Nikkei reported On October 11. Shipping costs from China to the West Coast of the United States topped $3,900 per 40-foot container in late September, according to Freights, a Hong Kong-based company. That's nearly three times the price of a 40-foot container a year ago and a record high. Prices continued to rise in October.The report said the impact of the capacity strain was already being felt. Every Year from July to October, a flood of appliances, furniture and toys arrive in the United States by sea from China and other Asian countries, spurred by end-of-year commerce that runs from Black Friday in late November to the Christmas shopping season in December. It takes nearly three weeks to get to the West Coast from China. But this year, as the epidemic has slowed logistics and reduced demand for goods, the world's shipping giants have cut back on shipments since the spring. Shipping companies said they cut flights in May by as much as 20 percent of their planned number. Although the summer began to show signs of recovery, it failed to reverse the decline.The U.S. retail sector is also facing significant shortages, the report said. As of July, inventories were already more than 10% lower than a year earlier. The ratio of inventory to sales fell to 1.23, its lowest level since 1992.Appliance giant Best Buy and home Depot inc. are already running out of dishwashers, microwaves and refrigerators in some parts of the country. As more people are forced to work from home, demand for appliances has soared, with customers sometimes waiting months for deliveries after placing orders. Many companies are already adjusting their tactics, such as extending discounts until the end of December, to avoid crowded shopping and low inventories.Demand for personal protective equipment continues to grow, but the number of trips is still slow to pick up, the report said. As of September, freight traffic between China and the United States was nearly 5 percent lower than planned. The shipping industry, which has been accused of oversupply in recent years, remains on high alert for a drop in freight rates and a collapse in demand after the trade war.Improving the loading rate of containers is one of the most important emergency response measures, the report said. The Japanese branch of a foreign-owned shipping company has been instructed by its head office to relocate empty containers in Japan to China and other Asian countries. Yoshizaki Goto, a researcher at the Japan Maritime Center, said Japan's anemic consumer recovery was not matched by the volume of cargo moving between China and the U.S. and Europe.Air cargo capacity is also reported to be tight. According to the TAC index, freight from Hong Kong to North America is now 43 Hong Kong dollars, or about 37 renminbi, a kilogram, more than 20 percent more expensive than it was in early July.Because air cargo is often carried through the belly of passenger planes, the epidemic has reduced the flow of people, which in turn has reduced the number of flights. Specialist air cargo carriers have increased capacity by nearly 30% by adding more flights, but that still hasn't offset the drop in passenger flights. Overall, the industry's capacity is still down 30% from last year. Demand for short-term cargo flights has picked up with Apple's new product and the launch of SONY's Playstation 5 game console in the United States, but it is hard to say for sure whether more flights will be added to the industry as a whole.Europe is also heading into its end-of-year shopping season, while overland transport from China is accelerating. As of August, the number of china-Europe freight trains in operation in 2020 has exceeded 90 percent of that of the whole year in 2019, and the number is expected to exceed 10,000. How to arouse the desire of consumers who are forced to stay at home? The commercial war at the end of the year will undoubtedly become a test, but the urgent task is to remove the obstacles caused by the poor logistics.Rail traffic between China and Europe is accelerating, with this year's figures converted from the previous eight months.