Hong Kong exporters risk missing Christmas peak season as global supply chain crisis leaves goods stranded
- Small and medium-sized enterprises, desperate for containers and facing rising transport costs, worry customers will cancel orders
- Shipment delays leave many exporters strapped for cash as overseas buyers put off payment too
Many Hong Kong exporters are facing severe cash flow problems ahead of the peak Christmas season, with the global supply chain crisis leaving their deliveries stranded at ports in the United States and their goods at factories in mainland China.
Hong Kong Shippers’ Council chairman Willy Lin Sun-mo said there were too few containers to meet demand, resulting in many cases of undelivered goods and delayed payments.
“If you can’t get a container by now and the goods are seasonal, there is a high chance you will miss the Christmas shopping season,” he said.
Some exporters have resorted to sending their goods by air, which can cost 10 times more than transporting a 40-foot container by sea.
“Normally goods for Christmas would have shipped by September, but the global supply chain crisis has, at best, left them piled up at the ports of the US west coast or, at worst, remaining at mainland factories,” Lin said.
Ironically, the economic rebound that followed the easing of pandemic restrictions has made matters worse.