U.S. importers, straining under a tapped-out supply chain, are increasingly offering top dollar for long-term shipping contracts that may not even be honoured as they try whatever it takes to guarantee the arrival of their products.
The pandemic-driven boom in demand for goods pushed both contract and spot rates for shipping to records – getting merchandise from place to place costs about 11 times more than it did before the COVID-19 outbreak. With demand so high and capacity limited, importers are paying up to avoid a repeat of 2021, when some contracts set at lower prices weren’t honoured, leaving customers without their stuff.
Read more in an article from the American Journal of Transportation.