The cost of a 40 ft. shipping container from Shanghai is up 238%-- gotta love the Chinese and FREE trade right??
Storage containers are scarce, so toymakers are focused on small, squishy toys for the holidaysIn a normal year, Basic Fun, based in Boca Raton, Florida, can export everything its customers order from its factories in China. "It's automatic," Foreman said. The company can "set it and forget it."
But not this year. Not in a year in which 20-foot and 40-foot shipping containers became scarce and more expensive to deliver goods from factories overseas to US ports and back.
The spot rate of booking a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Los Angeles hit $10,229 the first week of August, up 238% from the same time a year prior, according to Drewry, a maritime research consultancy.
So Foreman had to make a decision about which toys Basic Fun would focus on sending stores for the holidays. And he had to make it by September, so the goods would arrive in time.
He found an easy answer to a complicated problem: small, squishy toys......
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/16/business/toys-holiday-shopping-supply-chain/index.html
