Cargo ships are canceling sailings on key routes as inflation pushes shoppers to stop buying imported goods

According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, cargo ships are canceling voyages from Asia to the US due to inflation.

In the first two weeks of October, around 60 cargo-ship sailings from Asia to the US have been canceled, compared to an average of four and eight a week most of the time.

Last week, the shipping company announced that it was suspending one of its services and merging it with another route because of reduced demand for shipments into the US West Coast. According to the Journal, the route can carry almost 12,000 containers a week.

The shipping chaos that started last summer and continued into early 2022, when ports were congested as high demand for goods coincided with labor shortages at ports, came in stark contrast to this.

The cost of freight is falling. The average cost to ship a container in the world is $4,000, compared to a peak of over $11,000 in September last year.

The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from the world's largest port to Los Angeles and New York has fallen over the past year.

Even though rates have been declining over the course of the year, they still remain elevated.

Jonathan Roach, a container analyst at Braemar, told The Journal that the global economy has thrown a few curve balls this year. There will likely be an issue of over capacity from the middle of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st.

The busiest times for large carriers are late summer and early fall, because retailers build up inventories for the holiday period. Changes in spending have been caused by the economic downturn. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US has an inflation rate of 8.3%.

The quantity of goods available for export has been affected by the invasions of Ukraine and Russia.

Retailers in the US are having a hard time selling excess inventory. In July, non- auto retail inventories were less than in the same month in the previous year.

Macy's, Target, and Walmart said it was difficult to shift items that they ordered in huge quantities during the supply chain chaos and that were in high demand during the Pandemic.

Walmart employees told Insider that the store's back rooms were filled with outdoor storage trailers after being overwhelmed with freight.