Peak Season Strains Arrive Early for U.S. Importers

Nearing the halfway point of 2020, it’s been a long year for everybody already. But for people in the shipping industry, it really does feel like September.

Usually the ocean freight market tightens in the fall as retailers stock up before the holidays. This year a crunch is happening four months early because the pandemic has torn up the most basic law of economics. First Covid-19 hit supply chains during Chinese lockdowns. Now it’s making demand hard to predict, forcing shipping companies to throttle back capacity next quarter and sending freight rates soaring.