Chinese sea freight rates have increased by more than 500% towards Europe, the United States, and Africa, including Morocco, causing serious consequences for operators as well as ports’ activities.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the China-Morocco maritime freight rate for a container (40 feet) was generally set around MAD50,000, with the steep rise in prices, operators found themselves paying at least MAD200,000 per container, Mehdi Laraki, president of the Morocco-China Business Council of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) told Hespress English.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese partners were suffering, finding themselves stuck, since several factories had to stop their activity, and some Chinese ports were closed for a long time, in addition to the lack of boats, and during the pandemic, companies produced less and therefore stored less,” Laraki explained.
“The COVID-19 pandemic made an end to globalization, and gave birth to regionalization in many countries,” he said, giving the example of Germany’s industry, manufacturing 100% “Made in Germany” products.
“For now, thanks to vaccination, China has been able to get its activity back, by 2022, sea freight could stabilize, and decreases until 2023,” he added.
The president of the Morocco-China Business Council gave the example of Europe that ordered goods for gifts four months before Christmas and New Year’s eve, not for fear of increased costs, but for fear of delayed deliveries.
“China is a must, it’s a win for Morocco, not only in terms of goods exchanges but also in investment, by bringing out investors, new projects to the country,” he said.
China ranks first among Asian partner countries with Morocco, with a share of 46% of trade in 2020, according to MAP.
Recently, the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) signed in January 2021, through a video conference, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen economic and trade relations between Morocco and China.
This agreement provided as well strengthening mechanisms for exchange and information sharing, particularly on national economic and trade trends, laws and regulations as well as policies and measures.
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