OCEAN FREIGHT
We were informed from many sources that freight situation is getting better in terms of availability and pricing. Unfortunately, we do not experience that in Thailand. The space is still very limited and price is still so high. Thailand seafood industry and exporter are still suffering from high freight cost.
The cost to LA and NY is still as previous period (to LA is around $17,000 – $20,000, to NY is around $20,000-$25,000). The cancelation is still the problems for all exporters even the booking confirmation is already advised – the chance of cancelation is still possible. There is no sign of improvement from our view.
We have learned that there are around 100 ships waiting to enter and unload at LA. The truck and train are very shortage to move the containers. The new regulation that implemented November 1st stated that arriving containers that planned to move by truck will be allowed to stay 9 days and containers that planned to move by train will be allowed to stay for 3 days, after that the charged of 100 USD/container will be applied and increasing $100 USD per container per day. The exporter who plan to ship the containers to LA need to have a really good plan to avoid the additional cost. The East coast port – Savannah also has the problem. There are around 25 ships have waited outside the harbor.
RAW MATERIAL / FARMS & HARVEST
Shrimp Raw material price in Thailand is very high at the moment. This year price is significantly higher than last year. From our reservation, the price of Nov2021 is higher than Nov 2020 around 10%.
Regarding the shrimp availability, one of our key sources has advised that they are now receiving raw material for the production lower than usual period around 30-40%. And the big size shrimp like HOSO 40 pcs/kg and bigger is very limited. The regular size like HOSO 50 pcs/kg and smaller seems to be available but in a small quantity. Most of the packers are now trying to finish their pending order and catching up the delayed ones. The availability shipment now is from February 2022 onward.
The less production could be a result of low harvest in the previous period when economics situation was uncertainty, bad weather and flooding. Optimistically, the 2021 annual production should be at the same level as 2020. The shrimp supplier has advised that their production cost such as feed and utility is also increasing.
The resume of business activity after country has opened again is considered as a driving factor to drive food industry. All restaurants and hotels are fully open which push the demand for food and seafood higher than the other quarters. On the other hand, the seafood suppliers are still not 100% recover because all the factories and suppliers need to implement high preventive procedure such as social distancing and capacity reduction to prevent the spread of Covid 19. The vision for 2022 is still unclear but most of the expertise believe the situation will be better by Q2 when the number of vaccinated people is more than 80%.
