Dave Arsenault, president of Oakland, Ca based GSC Logistics and a former president of Hyundai Merchant Marine America, warned that container space has become a more important factor than cost for booking imports and exports on ocean carriers.
“Cargo owners are a bit gun shy right now. For the last few years, they have so much disruption and distress in their supply chains that the cost of service is … secondary to space.”
Arsenault went on to predict that freight rates would stay high: “The demand exceeds the supply. This means that rates are not going to be coming down, if anything will maintain or even increase, in some markets.”