Worldwide Logistics Group interviewed by the CGTN

discussing about the solution to the accident of Sues Canal set to be blocked by stranded ship

3月26日12:30时，环世物流集团国际运营中心总经理许中华接受中央电视台国际英文频道《Global Watch》（环球瞭望）栏目直播采访，此次采访的重点是解读苏伊士运河堵塞对中国航运和物流业所带来的影响以及应对之策。

Mr. Xu Zhonghua, the General Manager in International Headquarters of Worldwide Logistics, was live interviewed by the China Global Television Network at 12:30, 26th Mar. The emphasis was on the reading of the solutions and impact of the block of Sues Canal to Chinese marine and logistics industry.

完整视频链接：

https://m.v.qq.com/play.html?vid=i3236ei8gt8&ptag=v_qq_com%23v.play.adaptor%233&second_share=1

原文采访如下：

问题1: 请告诉我们， 您作为全球航运的专业人士，对整个行业是否已经对这类黑天鹅事件的连锁反应做好了准备，有何看法？

Q1：Mr. Xu, You are an expert in global marine shipping. Tell us if the industry is ready for this kind of black swan impact?

回答：毫无疑问，苏伊士运河是连接亚洲/东非/大洋洲和欧洲的世界上最繁忙的石油和精炼燃料、粮食和其他贸易的航运通道之一。截至今天清晨，共有259艘船只排队，高于周三的186艘。它包括148艘向南航行的船只和111艘向北航行的船只。

很难给出运河严重拥堵造成的损失的单一数字，但运费已经飞涨。从中国到欧洲的40英尺集装箱运输成本已攀升至约8000美元，几乎是一年前的四倍。通常运载100万桶石油的苏伊士型油轮目前每天的收入约为1.7万美元，为2020年6月以来的最高水平。

如果搁浅的船只不能在短时间内重新航行，其他船只将不得不绕过好望角。对于在苏伊士运河受阻的船舶，向北行驶的船舶需要多航行8200海里绕过好望角，根据不同船型的航速，需要多航行19-24天；如果船舶尚未到达苏伊士运河，还需要绕行至少8-10天。这将进一步加剧运力供应紧张，推高各种船型的租金。

It is indisputable that Suez Canal is one of the world's busiest shipping channels for oil and refined fuels, grain and other trade, linking Asia and Europe. Up to this early morning, 259 vessels were queued up, up from 186 Wednesday. It includes 148 south-bound ships and 111 north-bound ships.

It's going to be tough to come up with a single figure for how much the epic traffic jam in the canal is costing, but shipping rates are already skyrocketing. The cost to ship a 40-foot container from China to Europe has climbed to about US$8,000, almost quadruple the figure a year ago. Suezmax vessels, which typically carry 1 million barrels of oil, are now getting about US$17,000 a day, the most since June 2020.

If the stranded ship cannot be removed in a short time, other ships will have to go around the Cape of Hope. For the ships that have been blocked in the Suez Canal, the north-bound vessels need to sail 8200 nautical miles more, and about 20 days more according to the different ship types of speed; and if the ship not yet reaches the Suez Canal, it will also need to detour for at least 8-10 days. This will further increase the tension in the supply of capacity and push up the rent of each ship type.

问题2：谁将为此次事件最终买单呢？

Q2：Who will pay for this accident?

回答：从船型来看，运河堵塞对油轮和集装箱船市场影响较大，但对以粮食、煤炭、化肥、钢铁、铁矿石为主要货物的散货市场影响较小。集装箱运输作为跨境电子商务的主要运输方式，也受到了冲击和挑战。

近年来，跨境电子商务的不断兴起对国际物流提出了更大的挑战。特别是去年疫情爆发后，国际电子商务物流的商业模式也发生了很大变化。

之前，我们使用直接邮寄方式的快递和包裹交付后，从海外客户的订单。从三年前开始，我们开始在欧洲国家设立海外仓库。在我们收到客户的订单之前，电子商务平台会将所有这些货物运送到海外仓库，然后根据欧洲客户的在线订单直接从仓库发送给他们。因此，我们在许多欧洲国家的仓库里积累了大量的存货，这样我们就可以继续向客户发货，把这次事件的负面影响降到最低。

From the perspective of ship types, the blockage of the canal has more impact on the oil tanker and container ship market, but less impact on the bulk cargo market with grain, coal, fertilizer, steel and oil as the main cargo. As the main transport mode of cross-border e-commerce, container shipping has also been impacted and challenged.

In recent years, the continuous rise of Cross-border E-commerce has posed more challenges to international logistics. Especially after the outbreak of the epidemic last year, the business model of international e-commerce logistics has also changed greatly.

Before we use the direct mail mode of express and parcel delivery after orders from overseas customers. From three years ago, we start to set up overseas warehouses in the European Countries. Before we got the orders from the customer, the E-Commerce platform will ship all these goods to the overseas warehouses, and then sent directly from the warehouses to European customers against their orders online. Therefore, we have accumulated a lot of inventory in the warehouses of many European countries, so that we can continue to deliver goods to customers, to minimize the negative impact of this incident.