Global container rates are expected to stabilise shortly, after a steep fall earlier this year, according to Vikash Agarwal, managing director, South Asia, for global shipping and logistics firm Maersk. He said softening economies and inflationary pressure are some of the impediments in global trade. But there is a concerted push towards mitigating risk by widening supply chains, he said.
“We clearly see there is a soft market at the moment given the demand slowing down. The western economies are suffering; diversification of the supply chain is what most of the customers are looking at from a risk mitigation perspective,” Agarwal said.
“Post-Covid this is an opportunity for consumers to rethink supply chains and future supplies. This is where all lot of resetting is going to happen. Now, whether India, Vietnam or African nations gain, a shift is definitely going to happen,” he said.
According to Agarwal, the shift would be a gradual process which will yield results over the coming decade.
On global container rates, he said there has been a steep fall from the prices during the pandemic. “We have clearly seen some decline from the peaks that we have seen in the last two years. The first half of this year was concerning for the industry,” he said.