美国国家公共电台 NPR--Examining the state of global shipping and what it might mean for you

Examining the state of global shipping¹ and what it might mean for you

Transcript²

The cost of transporting shipping containers has gone back down to 2019 levels after record highs during the pandemic. That should be great news for consumers, right? Well, not so fast.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

During much of the pandemic, the cost to fill and transport a shipping container soared. Now shipping rates have dropped by roughly 80% over the past six months. So what's that mean for consumers? Paddy Hirsch and Wailin Wong from NPR's daily economic podcast The Indicator³ report.

WAILIN WONG, BYLINE⁴: The last big shipping boom was in the early 2000s. This is when ocean shipping carriers were big beneficiaries of the increase in global trade due to China's expansion.

PADDY HIRSCH, BYLINE: Yeah, and that boom was followed by the financial crisis of 2008, of course, in a downturn so severe that many carriers went bust⁵ and either folded or were bought out by competitors.

WONG: But then came COVID. Emily Stausboll is an analyst⁶ covering ocean shipping carriers at Xeneta. She says the pandemic really turned things around for them.

EMILY STAUSBOLL: We had a huge increase in demand for containerized goods, typically from Asia into the U.S., because of these stimulus⁷ packages, certainly, and because people were at home, right?

WONG: Demand for containers and the ships to put them on skyrocketed, as did the amount that carriers were able to charge. Some people wonder whether all that consolidation⁸ during the Great Recession allowed carriers to collude and push prices higher.

HIRSCH: At the end of 2019, it cost less than $2,000 to rent a large-sized container to get from China to Los Angeles. Eighteen months later, carriers were billing 10 times that amount. Emily says the industry had never seen anything like it.

STAUSBOLL: Last year, in 2021, the shipping companies made more than some of those really big tech companies. And it was just completely unheard of.

WONG: All of this good news for the carriers was, of course, terrible news for everyone else, like the retailers⁹ who were renting these containers, also known in the industry as shippers. And these shippers had a number of options. They could eat the increased costs themselves or they could find a way around them.

HIRSCH: Yeah, Amazon, for example, even pre-pandemic, began making its own containers and chartering its own ships to cut shipping costs. But, of course, most retailers don't have the kind of money or muscle that Amazon has, so they resorted to option three - they passed the costs on to the consumer.

WONG: Today, however, everything has changed, and retailers who want to ship goods have the upper hand over the carriers.

HIRSCH: Yeah, today we're importing a lot less of the things that we bought during the pandemic. Throw in the knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine and the resulting economic slowdown and suddenly, there's a lot less demand for containers and the ships that carry them.

STAUSBOLL: Shippers have gone from being unable to get their carriers on the end of the phone and say, hey, I need to talk to you, to suddenly, all the carriers are calling them and saying, hey, do you have any containers for me that I can move?

WONG: It's presumably great news for consumers who will no doubt see the benefits of these cost cuts and lower prices of goods very soon, right?

HIRSCH: Well, we'd be well advised not to hold our breath for lower prices, not least because the carriers are doing everything that they can to keep freight rates up. Emily says they're canceling sailings and are scrapping¹⁰ older ships, all in a bid to reduce the overcapacity in the market.

WONG: Shipping has always been a boom-and-bust business, but it was the sheer scale of the pandemic boom and the bust that we're in now that took everyone by surprise.

HIRSCH: And that, of course, includes regulators who allowed all of that consolidation in the industry after the financial crisis, figuring that it benefited the consumer. Emily says that now that the seafoam is settling, those regulators are going to be looking afresh at the shipping industry to ask how it was that prices went so high so quickly during the pandemic and maybe to see how we can try to stop that happening the next time.

WONG: Wailin Wong.

HIRSCH: Paddy Hirsch, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ADRIAN QUESADA'S "STARRY NIGHTS")

1 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

8 consolidation   

n.合并,巩固

参考例句：

• The denser population necessitates closer consolidation both for internal and external action. 住得日益稠密的居民，对内和对外都不得不更紧密地团结起来。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• The state ensures the consolidation and growth of the state economy. 国家保障国营经济的巩固和发展。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法

9 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

10 scrapping   

刮，切除坯体余泥

参考例句：

• He was always scrapping at school. 他在学校总打架。
• These two dogs are always scrapping. 这两条狗总是打架。