Container Shipping Is Not Just Delayed; It’s Hyperinflated

The median cost of shipping a standard TEU container from China to the West Coast of the United States was $5,500 in January 2021; $10,800 in July; and hit $20,585 in September, the highest such cost on record. The Washington Post on Oct. 3 reported the container cost paid by a single large wholesaler in Illinois, American Sale Warehouse, most of whose imported goods come from the Chinese port of Ningbo. The price before the pandemic was less than $5,000, but in late August 2021, it was $26,000. This intersects with the delays in this intermodal shipping route, by sea and by truck, which have come to be from three weeks to four months beyond the normal shipping time prior to the pandemic.