Reconciliation on the roads: the delivery time of gadgets from China has doubled
The delivery of electronics by road from China to Russia has slowed down significantly. Instead of the previous week, cargo can now travel to the European part of Russia for up to two weeks, and the cost of transportation has increased by 10-25%, vendors, distributors and their partners told Izvestia. Experts attribute the situation to a shortage of fuel in some regions, a change in the operating mode of border crossings and the priority passage of fuel trucks. The complication of logistics may lead to an increase in gadget prices by 5-7% in early autumn, market participants do not exclude.
Gadget delivery from China has become slower
The delivery time of gadgets from China to Russia by trucks has approximately doubled, a manager of an electronics manufacturer, a distributor employee, and a source familiar with the management of several vendors and sellers told Izvestia. If in the first half of the year it took an average week to wait for the product, now it's about two, says one of them. At the same time, the cost of delivery increased by about 10%.
The terms and prices of the increase vary greatly from region to region, Izvestia's interlocutors specify. Moreover, the transportation time has increased not only by motor transport.
— Jet fuel has increased in price, a number of regular flights have been canceled due to the crisis in the Middle East, so air delivery has also increased in price, - said one of the sources of the publication.
According to him, shipping has also become more expensive and less predictable in terms of timing. The main additional costs are likely to be shifted to the end customer: prices for gadgets will rise, and their range may decrease, he believes.
Market participants attribute the current situation to a certain shortage of fuel in Russia — its severity is decreasing, but it is still not possible to quickly refuel cargo vehicles and ensure timely delivery everywhere and not always.
At the same time, trucking remains the most popular way to deliver electronics from China to the Russian Federation, said the manager of one of the manufacturers. About 70% of gadgets are delivered to Russia in this way. The rest goes through the CIS countries, and iPhones, for example, are imported in large quantities from the UAE, said Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. According to him, logistics has really increased in price by about 10%. The situation varies from region to region — where there is less fuel shortage, delivery times are closer to normal, he noted.
The situation is also aggravated by the fact that in recent months, some trading platforms and retailers have begun to move goods from large warehouses to smaller storages and stores — this requires additional vehicles and costs. If the situation does not change in August, prices for some electronics can be expected to rise by about 5-7% in early autumn, Murtazin did not rule out.
Why has transportation slowed down?
Another reason for the increased time was the slowing down of the border crossing: the green corridor was created for fuel trucks, which received a preferential right, Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research, told Izvestia.
An additional factor was the seasonal increase in the water level in the Amur River. Because of this, since July 23, the movement of trucks through the Amurzet border crossing in the Jewish Autonomous Region, which connects Russia with the Lobei checkpoint in China, has been closed, the expert added. And on August 4, for the same reason, the passage of goods, vehicles and passengers at the Nizhneleninskoye checkpoint in the Jewish Autonomous Region is suspended (on the Chinese side, the Tongjiang checkpoint is located here).
Collapse of the Amur road as a result of flooding
— The dynamics of changing conditions varies greatly for different carriers: the range of price increases was 10-25%, and the delivery time was 15-25%. At the same time, rail transportation has even improved. The delivery time by train from the main points in China to Moscow remains in the range of 7-14 days. At the same time, since July 29, Russian Post has expanded the geography of the Freight Express service from China, launching trains to St. Petersburg. The guaranteed delivery speed from the Chinese city of Hunchun (it is located 8 km from the Russian border and is connected to the Mahalino border crossing in Primorsky Krai) to St. Petersburg is 16 days," Leonid Konik said.
According to the expert, internal factors also create an additional burden on logistics. After the drone strikes on a number of Wildberries logistics centers, some sellers may face difficulties in restoring business, the expert believes. Goods from China will try to occupy the vacant niche, which means that the logistics corridors from this country to Russia require urgent expansion, he believes.
Over the past couple of weeks, the logistics situation has really worsened, and there is already a complex effect that has begun to be transmitted throughout the supply chain, said Sofia Komissarova, senior analyst at the Center for Strategic Support of Domestic Technologies. Cargo delivery times from China and internal logistics have also slowed down. The transit time from Zabaikalsk on the border to Moscow has increased by about a quarter and reaches 10-12 days instead of the previous eight, and the idle time of trucks at crossings between Russia, Kazakhstan and China has increased 3-4 times compared to the beginning of the year.
As for the cost of delivery, it has risen by 15-25% and, judging by the current dynamics, it will grow at least until the end of summer, Sofia Komissarova believes. The reasons here are not isolated, they overlap each other. First of all, this is a shortage of fuel and queues at gas stations in some regions of Russia — because of this, drivers sometimes lose time and the daily mileage decreases. In addition, stricter customs controls and new requirements for electronic seals create congestion at the border, the expert noted. In addition, shippers, trying to circumvent the collapse of road transport, are actively switching to railways and the sea, which has caused a secondary increase in tariffs — container rates on the railway and the cost of sea transportation have increased.
Unfortunately, this means an inevitable increase in retail prices for end customers, said Sofya Komissarova.
The situation may stabilize in the fall, says Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. This will happen as fuel problems are generally resolved, as well as temporarily closed border crossings are opened.
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