According to a Wall Street Journal article a few years back, “Bulk shipping costs have been rising for a couple of years.” The run-up in that cost intensified in 2007 and hasn’t really let up since. As if all of that isn’t already bad enough news for businesses whose operations rely on bulk shipping, the price tag may soon be soaring even higher… if it hasn’t already.
A new petition was filed last month seeking investigation by the U.S. government into allegations that Chinese imports of dry bulk shipping containers were being unfairly dumped and subsidized. The United States has an anti-dumping law in place that requires imports sold in the U.S. at rates that are under “normal value” to be assessed with special tariffs. Another law, the countervailing duty law, imposes another set of tariffs on imports receiving unfairly beneficial subsidization from foreign governments.
How is this going to impact business owners who take part in foreign bulk shipping? According to one law firm, if the U.S. government confirms that Chinese imports are being dumped at a margin of 90 percent, then the “U.S. Customs and Border Protection would impose a 90 percent special antidumping duty on all Chinese imports of this product.”
Whether a firm is affected by this foreign situation, there is another scenario that is likely adding to their bulk shipping costs. And that is the loss of containers at the bottom of the sea.
Web news watchdog Motherboard recently ran an expose titled “What Seven Years at the Bottom of the Sea Does to a Shipping Container.” Therein the author pointed out that “shipping containers are the red blood cells of the world economy-shuffling 90 percent of… goods from where they’re made to where they’re consumed. There are 5 to 6 million-maybe more-shipping containers riding across the world’s oceans at the very moment you’re reading this. And at an estimated average of once an hour, one of those shipping containers falls into the ocean and is never seen again.”
While the majority of the containers that become lost at sea are those used for shipping non-bulk products, bulk shipping containers are not without their mishaps. All kinds of unforeseen circumstances can cause them to become damaged beyond reusability.
After reading all of this, business owners who rely on shipping to keep their operations running smoothly and profitably might think there is no hope-that they’re doomed to take a financial hit one way or another. There is a cost-effective alternative, however. Used bulk shipping containers offer the same functionality as new bulk shipping containers at a fraction of the price.
Whether you need to store inventory, transport product internally from one locale to another or externally across the country or across the globe, or you just need stow away unsightly piles around the office, a used bulk container can save you a substantial sum of money. And if it does happen to get lost at sea? Replacing a used bulk shipping container won’t be nearly as financially painful as replacing a new one.