By Jennifer Chang    Photo：CANVA

Due to strong demand in the shipping market, freight rates continue to skyrocket. In addition to the highly watched Asia-North America and Asia-Europe routes, intra-Asian short-sea routes have also experienced a significant increase in freight rates. The sea freight cost from China to India has surged nearly 250% within a month. Signs of further congestion are emerging at global ports, especially in Asia and the Middle East. Singapore, one of the world's busiest ports and a major transshipment hub in Asia, has seen recent congestion, which has also contributed to the rise in container shipping prices.

As globalization continues to deepen, the global economic landscape is quietly changing. China's manufacturing industry has experienced rapid development, evolving from the "world's factory" to today's global manufacturing hub. During this process, China's manufacturing sector has shown a trend of transitioning from a global super factory to a network of distributed factories worldwide.  Currently, the industrial chain is shifting, and Chinese manufacturing is beginning to move to regions such as Southeast Asia and South Asia, forming a global network of distributed factories. This shift has transformed transportation from straightforward routes into more complex, curved routes, increasing the transportation of intermediate goods and lengthening shipping distances. Furthermore, Asia, a region that has been relatively underdeveloped but is rapidly rising, has shown strong productivity and a prosperous economic landscape in recent years. With the enhancement of productivity, the economy in Asia is also flourishing. This not only drives local economic development but also brings prosperity to intra-Asian short-sea trade.

However, the rapid growth of cargo traffic has also exposed the insufficiency of port infrastructure in Asia. Many ports in the region are relatively small in scale, and existing facilities often struggle to handle ultra-large vessels. These ports have limited capacity in managing vast amounts of cargo, becoming a significant obstacle to the development of the container shipping industry. For ultra-large vessels, the loading and unloading efficiency and the throughput of ports directly affect the efficiency of the entire logistics chain. In the Asian market, container shipping often relies on feeder vessels to complete the transportation.  Feeder vessel is a flexible and cost-effective method of transportation, suitable for short-haul transport between nearby ports. However, feeder vessel transportation requires frequent stops at multiple ports, which means each container needs to undergo multiple loading and unloading operations during the transportation process. This not only increases transportation costs but also prolongs the time for goods to reach their destination.

With the increase in trade volume, port congestion issues are becoming more prominent. It is expected that Asian ports will face serious congestion challenges in the future, which could further impact the efficiency of Asian trade. Port congestion not only leads to longer waiting times for vessels, increasing operational costs, but may also result in cargo backlog, affecting the normal operation of the supply chain.

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