Second-hand containers have seen a 20% drop in transaction and lease rates in India:

According to Container xChange’s latest Container Logistics Report, Trading and Leasing of Containers in India fell by 20% from March to April, 2022. In addition, the fall in container prices in countries such as China, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Asia can be traced worldwide. The report shows that India saw 20% lower average prices of 20 dry cargo (DC) and 40 High Cube (HC) standard shipping containers across the ports of Chennai, Nava Sheva and Mundra till the last week of April.

Christian Roelfs, co-founder and CEO of Container Exchange, said the disruption had caused uncertainty in the supply chain. “It simply came to our notice then. Container demand versus supply has reached equilibrium levels and this will mean that prices will also decrease somewhat, although not as sharply as indicated in the report. Beyond that, it depends on the obstacles. Once China starts working in full swing, the demand for containers will increase as our season approaches. This will cause traffic jams on ships and increase the demand for containers, which in turn will increase the price of containers again (in the medium term), ”he added.

Insights into the report show that the average container price at the port of Nava Sheva in the first week of May dropped by 18% from $ 4706 (INR 3,64,600) to $ 3909 (INR 3,02,852) in January. Mundra is down 9% from $ 4740 (INR 3,67,234) on February 24 to $ 4269 (INR 3,30,743) on May 3, and Chennai 40-foot HC cargo containers are down 18%.

“In the long run, however, this unpleasant demand for containers will eventually be eased as we hope the barriers will be removed. After that, we can expect that there will be an excess of containers, which will stabilize or reduce the price of containers, ”Roelofs added.

According to the Container Availability Index (CAx) value, Chennai has shown an increase of 0.77 in intra-container at 16 weeks and this level is expected to be maintained throughout May. The increase in CAx quality is an indication of increasing storage of containers, missing calls of carriers or increase in empty vessels when outbound containers are not being transported at the same rate.