After two years of shipping snarls, things are starting to turn around

After two years of port congestions and container shortages, disruptions are now easing as Chinese exports slow in light of waning demand from Western economies.

Container freight rates, which soared to record prices, have been falling rapidly and container shipments on routes between Asia and the U.S. have also plummeted.

The retailers and the bigger buyers are more cautious about the outlook on demand and are ordering less.

The congestion is easing with waiting times decreasing, ports operating at less capacity, and the container turnaround times decreasing which frees up the capacity in the market.

The Drewry world container index is a key benchmark for container prices. Drewry said in a recent update that that's 64% lower than the same time last year.

In Europe, sliding container prices and rates reflect declining consumer confidence, Container xChange said.

The current index is 160% higher than pre-pandemic prices, but it is much lower than record-high prices of over $10,000 during the height of the epidemic.

Major routes have fallen in freight rates. The costs for the routes have gone down.

A sharp drop in container shipments is tied in with the falling freight rates, according to a report.

Container shipments from Asia to the U.S. are down year on year, according to data from Descartes Datamyne.

"We assume that the sharp drop in container shipments largely reflects US retailers stopping orders and reducing inventories due to the risk of an economic slowdown," said Masaharu Hirokane in a note on Wednesday.

The world's port throughput has fallen. Drewry said that the increase in port traffic volumes weren't enough to offset the downturn in port handling levels.

Container xChange said sliding container prices and rates reflect a decline in consumer confidence.

Europe is flooded with 40-foot high cube containers. The prices of these boxes are falling in the region.

The past two years have seen a reversal of the trends in the supply chain. Container shortages were constant because of delays at ports that were affected by lockdowns.

At the Digital Container Summit held earlier this month, Danny den Boer said that demand for containers is falling and that their rates are also falling.

The CEO of Sogese said at the same conference that containers are getting less use.

There are a lot of containers at the port. Container xChange account manager Gregoire van Strydonck said at the conference that containers are being given away just because they're stuck there.

Supal Shah said factories in China have stopped production.

He spoke at the Digital Container Summit.

In China, Europe, India, Singapore and most parts of the world there is a container depot.