Benefiting from the rebound of the shipping index and continued congestion in some ports, the shipping stocks that have been continuously retreating recently rebounded slightly today, and COSCO Ship Port (01199.HK) rose by more than 5%.

As of press time, COSCO Ship Port, SITC International (01308.HK), COSCO Shipping Development (02866.HK), Xiangxing International (01732.HK), and COSCO Shipping Holdings (01919.HK) rose by 5.09%, 2.96%, 2.80%, 2.27%, and 2.13%, respectively.

On the news front, the main futures contract of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange's shipping index (Euro) rose by 4.51% at the close of yesterday and continued to rise today. As of press time, the contract rose by 2.37% to 4,673.8 points.

It is worth noting that this main contract experienced a significant decline of more than 5.17% on June 11th, when it was affected by the news of the UN passing a resolution related to the Gaza Strip.

The global shipping industry faces new challenges.

In addition to the shipping index turning from falling to rising, the global shipping industry is facing new challenges this week: the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the union of dock workers in ports along the east coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico, has announced the cancellation of negotiations with employers, increasing the risk of these workers holding a large-scale strike in the future. The ILA is the largest maritime trade union in North America, representing 85,000 dock workers who are responsible for operations at ports along the east coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, Puerto Rico, the Great Lakes, and major rivers in the United States.

It is worth noting that six of the top ten busiest ports in the United States have workers who are members of the ILA. As the contract expiration date of more than 45,000 workers on September 30th approaches and there is less than four months left for negotiations, these workers are spread across 36 ports from Maine to Texas.

At the same time, the Port of Singapore, as one of the busiest ports in the world, is facing a rare period of congestion. This is because more and more ships are changing course to head to this Asian shipping hub to avoid the Red Sea. Jaredu Krishna of Drewry Maritime Services pointed out that the yard utilization rate at the Port of Singapore had reached nearly 90% last month, while the ideal utilization rate was traditionally considered to be 70%.

Krishna mentioned that the current shipping routes are undergoing large-scale adjustments, causing changes in the distribution of ship schedules and transshipment containers, causing container piles in some ports. As waiting times and congestion increase, some ports are experiencing the phenomenon of "ship clustering".

According to a report by Asia Container Consultants Linerlytica, the waiting time for container ships to berth in Singapore has increased from half a day to about seven days. This has caused some shipping companies to choose not to stop in Singapore, but to turn to ports in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, which puts even greater pressure on already crowded or low-capacity ports and may further exacerbate the situation in the coming month.

Data from Drewry also confirms a sharp increase in waiting times-last month, the number of container ships waiting outside the Port of Singapore for at least four days increased to about 44, compared with only 14 in January.

Caixin News June 14th (Editor Hu Jiarong) In recent years, the national virtual power plant construction has accelerated, with more than 4,000 MWs of multiple forms of virtual power plants have been developed and operated throughout the country, according to a report by the National Energy Administration on June 11th. The willingness to participate in the construction of virtual power plants by users and equipment manufacturers has been increasing in the past two years, with the total capacity of applications to the virtual power plant trading platform increasing by 113 times in 2020 compared to the previous year.