News / Shortages, congestion and Covid delays push container prices sky-high

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The Covid lockdown at the southern Chinese hub port of Yantian in June has resulted in a 180% spike in the price of containers, according to online trading platform Container xChange.

Its Container Availability Index (CAx) component that covers the average price of transactions on its platform, spanning all box sizes sourced from Yantian, surged from $5,515 in June, to $15,336 this month.

“We saw a real and measurable spike in container prices and a major drop in container availability when terminals ...