How is your supply chain dealing with soaring shipping container costs?

Question

The cost of shipping by container has been soaring in 2021, with no end in sight. For those businesses that rely on container shipping, as tech clearly does with its colossal quantities of hardware originating in Asia, how have the supply chain plans of your business, whether big or small, been affected, and what steps can/should be taken to address it?Some background links:"Rising consumer demand and constrained supply of containers is causing disruption on the seas":https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/11/container-shipping-costs-have-surged-in-recent-months"Container rates are continuing to climb driving carriers&rsquo; profits while shippers continue to struggle with the ever-increasing costs. All major trade corridors have seen rate growth during the first five months of 2021 and fresh records continue to bet (sic) set.":https://maritime-executive.com/article/container-rates-continue-to-set-new-highs-in-2021"Last year we were paying $1,500-$2,000 a container from China and right now it's $10,500":https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/shipping-container-price-increase-1.6146496Smith Corona even calles it "chaos":https://www.smithcorona.com/blog/2021-supply-chain-chaos/

DarrenDev · Accepted Answer

By raising prices for end consumers.My brother runs a Pet Supply business in Ireland and brings in a lot of products from China, dog cages are particulary popular. At this moment you can't buy any of these products in Ireland as local suppliers have run dry, even the big brand name shops.They have a container on the water right now. The shipping cost rose from about &euro;2.5k to &euro;16k. When the goods arrive the item price in their shops will shoot up to compensate for the extra shipping cost.What else can businesses do?

Spooky23 · Answer

Q: &ldquo;How are they dealing?&rdquo;A: Not well. Try buying a commercial PC from HP or any docking device in quantity.

chefkoch · Answer

I think tech isn't really suffering that much in comparison to other sectors. Shipping is a small cost factor, just think about how much money a container full of laptops costs compared to a container full of some cheap plastic crap.