[Hongde Information] 37000TEU Cherry, which port did you go?

Hongde International understands that now the shipping market is sluggish, shipping companies use various tricks to reduce capacity, slow down sailing, around the Cape of Good Hope, send old ships, delay receiving new ships, and even idle 20000TEU class ships, but there is still a route, shipping companies show their powers, adjust the port of call to shorten the voyage, speed up the voyage to ensure the ship schedule, Xiaohong said is the Cherry (Cherry) Express Express line connecting Chile and China.

Chile is the world's largest exporter of cherries, while China is its largest export destination. During the 17-18 production season (winter in the northern hemisphere, October to January of the following year), Herb-Lloyd first opened cherries express. Since then, every mature period of cherries, from Mediterranean to Taiping shipping, almost all the top 12 shipping companies in the capacity list have opened cherries express one after another (a total of 50 ships carrying cherries this year, including 39 express lines). By the 2021-2022 production season, Chile exported 356000 tons of cherries, of which 314000 tons were exported to China, accounting for 88% of its total export volume, with a total price of over US $2 billion. In the 2022-2023 production season, Hapg-Lloyd expects that about 18500 40-foot boxes (equivalent to 37000TEU) will be sent to China carrying cherries. Whether you experience the freedom of cherries or not, the shipping company will definitely smell business opportunities.

The Chilean Fruit Exporters Association and shipping companies attribute the success of Cherry Express to Cherry Express, which is round and red. In Chinese culture, round represents perfection, red symbolizes auspiciousness and celebration, and prosperous Cherry is a popular gift during the Lunar New Year. For this reason, they have carefully built Cherry Express (earning a sum with tears), but what is special about Cherry Express?

Where's the Cherry Express?

One is speed. Chile is one of the countries farthest from China. Among the routes from Latin America to China opened by the three major shipping alliances and other shipping companies, the westward voyage usually takes 27-29 days. Cherry is perishable and damaged, and has special requirements for transportation. Generally, cold boxes are used for transportation, and the whole process of cold chain protection is required. For example, Herbert and COSCO Shipping all provide intelligent cold box monitoring services in the transportation process. During the 2022-2023 production season, some companies also contracted special refrigerated ships. The shorter the delay on the road, the fresher cherries will enter the consumer's belly.

End-to-end logistics scheme is one of the value-added services launched by shipping companies, setting up storage yards near the place of origin, providing a variety of transportation schemes, and connecting special customer service throughout the process. For example, Maersk and others have already started to provide customized services from Cherry Express, squeezing middlemen aside. In the longest time-consuming sea transportation, Cherry Express generally adjusts the existing route, skips the intermediate port, and goes directly to China from the port of Valparaiso (Valparaiso) or the port of San Antonio (San Antonio) in Chile, shortening the voyage to 22-23 days, which is 5-6 days less than the normal voyage. When the transportation capacity is most tight, some shipping companies also open overtime ships. After arriving at the port, the wharf should cooperate fully with the customs. The wharf should coordinate the number of ships. The customs should declare in advance, give priority to inspection and release. After arriving at the port, cherries should basically adopt the mode of direct unloading and lifting by the side of the ship, thus eliminating the process of dropping boxes at the wharf and sending them to distribution centers such as wholesale markets within an hour or even half an hour.

Which port is the Cherry Express linked?

The second is the distance from the market and the cold chain operation capacity of the wharf. Entering the Cherry season, only Valparaiso Port or San Antonio Port will be retained as the starting port of the route originally linked to multiple ports. After direct flights to China, the South China port closer to the market and the Yangtze River Delta port will be the terminal. Among them, Hong Kong Port has been the first choice for many years. After ships arrive at Hong Kong, they can quickly transfer to the mainland through cross-border trucks and barges. The route network also covers other parts of Asia and is suitable for transfer. The harbor alliance formed by Hong Kong's terminal operators has a total of 8000 cold box sockets, ranking first among all ports in South China. For Cherry Express, the harbor alliance provides hot box service, the efficiency of its free trade port-level customs clearance has made Hong Kong an important hub for Chinese fruit imports. The first Cherry Express in this season is the Seaspan Brightness, which is shared by Hapag-Lloth and ONE. It was originally deployed on the AN1 or ALX1. The first port of call in China was Yantian Port. After it was adjusted to the Express, the first port of call became Hong Kong Port. On this express line, ONE's direct ports are all Hong Kong ports, and Hapag-Lloth also has the largest number of direct flights to Hong Kong.

The competition of other ports and terminals in South China in Cherry Express and import and export cold chain business is also becoming more and more intense. After berthing at the modern container terminal of Hong Kong Port on December 9, Seaspan Brightness, it was linked to Yantian International on December 11, which is the first Cherry Express in mainland China. Yantian International has taken imported fruits as the focus of cold chain import business development in recent years (as of November this year, Yantian International's fruit import increased by more than 600). Yantian International currently has 4000 cold box sockets and two special cold chain constant temperature inspection sites inside and outside the wharf, providing guarantee for the rapid inspection of all kinds of import and export cold chain goods.

However, the first box of cherries imported from the mainland came from the Dachan Bay Terminal. With the help of the same operator (modern containers), after the Seaspan Brightness berthed in Hong Kong, the Dachan Bay Terminal arranged for connecting trucks and barges to be transported back to the mainland from Hong Kong in only 4 hours. At present, there are six barge companies providing daily import fruit express service from Hong Kong to Dachan Bay, each barge is equipped with a cold box socket.

In Shenzhen, Shekou is not the first port of call for express lines in China, but Shenxi Port is not to be outdone. In July this year, China Merchants Port launched the "Global Digital Trading Center for Fruit and Vegetable Arrival" to ensure the timeliness of fruit imports. As the nearest hub port to the Jiangnan market, which is the largest fruit and vegetable distribution center in China, the port of Guangzhou has emerged as a new force. In recent years, many shipping companies have opened direct routes to Nansha port. In order to cooperate with the development of cold chain business, Guangzhou Port has built the largest port-adjacent cold storage in the country, namely Nansha International Cold Chain Project. The number of cold box sockets has reached 5500, and it can also provide inspection and storage, cold box storage, distribution and distribution, supply chain and other supporting value-added services. Before the Spring Festival, Nansha Port will unload and unload Cherry Express 11 times, whether it is a pioneer such as Hapo Lloth, or Evergreen (WSA1 line), COSCO Shipping (WSA3), Maersk (AC3) and other later joined counterparts have many direct voyages to Nansha, Nansha leapt to become the largest port of cherry imports in the mainland.

Competition in South China is fierce, the Yangtze River Delta has fewer choices, and companies will basically make direct flights to Shanghai Port in several voyages. Not so many choices actually mean the unsaturation of cold chain operation capacity and business opportunities. The express line of Wanhai Shipping (AS2) and Taiping Shipping Co., Ltd. all goes straight to Shanghai Port. The first ship deployed on this line will arrive at Shanghai Port on December 12. In addition to the express line, there are also companies that have contracted special refrigerated ships to be attached to the bulk cargo terminal. Taizhou Damaiyu Port has shared the import pressure for Shanghai Port. China Eastern Airlines Logistics has also contracted cross-border ships to be attached to Shanghai Nangang Terminal.

As the Spring Festival approaches, the Cherry Express will come to an end this season. In the sixth year of Cherry Express, the increasingly mature business model has brought consumers a certain degree of freedom, and also allowed shipping companies and terminals to see more business expansion space. For shipping companies, the end-to-end value-added service and cold chain business represented by Cherry Express can also be extended to other fruits and seasonal fresh food. Especially in the downturn of shipping, cold boxes are still booming. This year's Cherry season, the price of cold box transportation from Latin America to China has also increased by 25%. In the competition for business, ports have no absolute winner and still have the opportunity to establish their own brand advantages.

(WeChat Public Number: Hongde International Freight, Global Easy GO)

What? You want to know more! Welcome to add the following WeChat and contact relevant staff of Hongde International ~