Shortage of goods and delays continues as Sinterklaas, Hanukkah & Christmas approach

High import prices on products from China will likely last as the holiday season is around the corner, transport experts said to Nieuwsuur.

Import prices have been higher and transport times longer since the coronavirus crisis. A spike followed the temporary closure of many factory doors in product demand.

"We now see new bottlenecks arising," Bart de Ruiter from the forwarding company Explect said. The effects of the container ship that got stuck in the Suez canal can still be felt. Problems also arose in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where dozens of cargo ships streamed in with no one there to unload them.

The import price for containers from China has risen ten-fold since May.

"The high import costs have a considerable influence on relatively large products," director of the toy importer Van der Meulen, René Bakker, said. "The price of a bingo set doubled. And a trampoline can be 100 euros more expensive next year."

Not only are imports cost higher, but delivery times have also been climbing up. Numbers from the ING showed that around seventy percent of container ships arrive late. "I'm still waiting on 15 percent of the articles we ordered for Sinterklaas and Christmas," Bakker said.

Some businesses, such as Bol.com and Blokker, expected a few articles to be available in time for the holidays.

Delivery will expect until at least February, some importers believed.
"If the peaks will stay as high as now depends on the economic growth and how the logistics sector wants to distribute it," transport expert Onno de Jong said.

"It would not surprise me if the prices of container transport remain high for all of 2022," De Jong said.