Ocean Shipping Freight Rates Soared by 10 Times 2021 But It's Still Hard to Get an Empty Container

International sea shipping freight rates have skyrocketed by 10 times in 2021 while exporters still have problems to book an empty container. The shortage of shipping containers is yet another symptom of the havoc the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on international supply chains. The current situation is: exporters may not be short of orders but the cost has risen sharply. That means they are suffering from profit margin squeeze.

Ocean Shipping Freight Rates Rose Sharply in 2021

CCTV (China Central Television) recently approached Taizhou Threeway Vehicle Catalytic Converter Co., Ltd. and covered the international shipping issues. Although export orders for auto parts are booming and factories are busy with production, companies are still mixed, pwith problems such as rising prices of raw materials and persistently high shipping charges. Threeway currently has sufficient orders. However, due to the rising prices of precious metals such as palladium and rhodium, steel and other raw materials and the rising ocean shipping freight rates, the cost has risen by at least 20%. 

How to Make a Paper Box Step by Step

In the heat of the Coronavirus epidemic outbreak in China, one factory guy shared making a square paper box by hand to kill time. It can be used to hold some desk trashes like nutshells, or other little things. Listed hereinafter are the steps:

How to make a paper box by hand:

1. Get a square paper, preferably repurposed from used items. What’s used here for demonstration is a piece of T=0.18mm brown kraft paper(22*22cm) , retrieved from a used paper handbag.

The thicker the paper is, the more rigid the box will be. But thicker paper make it more difficult to fold. You can find a trade-off here.

2. Fold the paper in half twice, to form two perpendicular creases as shown in the photo.

3. Fold the four corners inward along the creases and make them meet at the center of the paper.

Spectrum of Packaging from Simple to Excessive

— Implications in modern packaging of a Chinese allusion “Keep the fancy case but give back the valuable pearl…”

There’s a household idiom in Chinese which goes as follows:

About 2,300 years ago, a jewelry dealer from Chu state (of the ancient China) traded pearls in Zheng state. One day, he had a very precious pearl.
In order to sell it at a premium price, he decided to make a fancy box for it. He had a top carpenter make an exquisite box with rare wood, then employ a top craftsman to carve delicate patterns top and elaborately decorate it with superior perfume and gem stones. The dealer then put the pearl in and was confident of the packaging.

A person from Zheng State was deeply enamored by the pretty case and bought it for a high price after some bargaining.
But the story didn’t end here as usual!
To his surprise, the buyer soon returned with the case and pearl. The dealer was literally a little frustrated and expected he would think again. But to his astonishment, the buyer took the pearl out, gave it back to the dealer and left with the glittering box only!

This Chinese idiom is used to satirize people who are bewitched by the gorgeous appearance and give up the precious essence, and also used more broadly to mean lacking judgement and making false choices.

In reality, few would go to extremes like the character in the story, perhaps. But when it comes to packaging, it does render us a bit of deja vu, especially with some health products in China. Some products are not as valuable as its packaging and that’s not exaggerating.

However, the importance of packaging should by no means be down played, either to sellers or buyers. Aside from protecting the products inside, a good packaging go a long way in terms of communicating product and brand values between the two parties.

Then, at the spectrum of packaging from simple to excessive, where’s the right point? Maybe there are a thousand hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.
1. As a buyer/consumer, to what extent will you buy in a fancy packaging?
2. If you’re a marketer, how will you balance between luxury and simplicity of packaging?

Deliver the Bumpiest Mini Drawer Gift Boxes Project

Simple does not mean easy! Recently we’ve worked on a project where entails a two-part drawer gift box as an accessory to the larger complex box. This tiny box involves no odd shapes, nor complex structure or design! Just so normal except for its delicate size. But just as being so small in size, it had once been quite challenging – unlike round mini tubes(eg. lip balm tubes) which can run on machines. Here’s the story on how we struggled (if not got stuck) in such a ‘simple’ box, and finally were determined to deliver, but at the expense of profits!

This tiny drawer gift box, as shown above, would probably be figured as something not worth the candle by most suppliers, which could be told from the dimensions (as in the following dieline).

Failed Outsourcing Attempts
Frankly, the reason that we’d accept such an order in the busy season is partly because it’s an accessory, and partly because we thought we could outsource this part. Some peer vendors may specialize in such hand-made boxes.
The first few we contacted all declined flatly at the sight of the drawing. Then we tried to contact some factories who keep good relationship with us and asked for their favor. All of them agreed to try but gave up within one or two days. We were somewhat prepared for such reaction. With its delicate size, it can’t fit on the automatic box folding machines. And as it measures hardly the width of an index finger, it’s tricky for manual handling. Thus even the workers are not willing to work on this project because the slow progress affected their piece wages.
The time lapsed fast – two weeks had passed, and we had approached no less than 10 peer cardboard gift boxes factories. The main/larger gift box sets were already done and the agreed delivery time is almost due. However, the little box project was literally going nowhere!

Round gift boxes get popular in product packaging

Round cardboard tubes catch on in recent years! you can find more and more products are packed in tubes, cosmetics, food, tea and gifts, etc.
Compared to traditional square/rectangular rigid gift boxes, custom paper tubes packaging has its pronounced advantages:
1. Tubes are not so apt to bend from pressure. This advantage may come from its different material and production method. Tubes are machine rolled from kraft paper, layer by layer, and reinforced with glue. But non-tube rigid boxes are mainly framed/support by thick grey board. And all boards, whatever they are made of, tend to warp.
2. The shape make a difference. Pressure over round tubes are evenly spread along the rim, while other shapes can’t as they have corners.

3. Round tubes are more simple in making. Round tubes production generally involves tube rolling, wrapping, some may require hemmed edges and finish treatment, etc. And non-tube packaging entails scoring, die-cutting, except for aforesaid steps.
4. Despite all the above merits, round cardboard gift boxes are even cheaper and more stable in quality.
Of course, many things factor in the choice of packaging styles. products, brand concepts, preferences of certain consumer segments and management teams among other elements influence what to box type to use.
We, Innove Packaging focus on custom cardboard gift boxes manufacturing. Welcome to communicate with us on any packaging needs or questions!