John Whelan: It's small Irish firms that struggle most with sky-high shipping costs out of China

The roots of the shipping crunch affecting all markets can be traced back to a chronic over-reliance on China as a manufacturing base

One of Europe’s largest shipping lines Maersk have had to ship vast quantities of empty containers to Asia to balance the trade demand.

Sun, 24 Oct, 2021 - 18:30

John Whelan

An expert in Irish and international trade, John Whelan is a former Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association, a role he held for more than a decade and previously served as an export industry adviser to the AIB Bank Group.

Back with a bang, China’s Canton Fair, the biggest trade fair in the world, took place last week, amid signs that the second largest global economy was ready to bounce back after the Covid restrictions.

Shrugging off pandemic worries, 600,000 buyers from around the world, including Ireland, flocked to the Canton Fair, in Guangzhou, to place orders valued at more than €1.2tn (€1.03tn), according to state agencies.