Amazon Belgium site officially launched

On October 18, Amazon announced that the Belgian station was officially launched! Global sellers can now start selling on the Belgian site. This marketplace is the tenth active site that Amazon has opened in Europe. This is another new marketplace that Amazon has opened in Europe after Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands. Currently, Amazon has sites in 21 countries around the world. It is understood that almost all sellers on the Belgian station are existing sellers from other Amazon European marketplaces – mainly from China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain.

It is understood that the Belgian station will be available in French, Dutch and English. If the seller already has a European joint account, there is no need to register separately, and the Belgian station will automatically appear in the seller's account. In addition, since there is no FBA warehouse in Belgium at present, it can directly enter the warehouse in Germany and France. Ship from Germany/France to Belgium, share inventory and enjoy local delivery fees. In addition, if the seller has stocked goods in a third-party overseas warehouse in European countries, such as Germany overseas warehouse or Empire Express Poland overseas warehouse, they can directly send one item from the overseas warehouse to Belgium.

Amazon may next launch new sites in Ireland, Norway or Austria, and because of the proximity, consumers are already using Amazon even in countries where Amazon hasn't officially launched yet. Belgian consumers were also accustomed to shopping on Amazon before, because the French site radiated and covered the Belgian region. Therefore, the opening of the new site will undoubtedly promote and facilitate consumption in the region.

Seaborne prices plummeted, and Matson Shipping released third-quarter earnings forecast

For the global container shipping market, the third and fourth quarters are traditional peak seasons, and the phenomenon of "one warehouse is hard to find" is now difficult to see, and more is the rapid decline in shipping prices and the weak performance of the container shipping market. According to the data released by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on October 14, the latest SCFI index fell by 108.95 points to 1814 points, a decrease of 5.7%, and a decrease of 65% from the high point at the beginning of the year. The freight rates of the four major European and American routes have plummeted. Among them, the western route and the European route have dropped by more than 12% in a single week, and the distance from the high point has dropped by 74% and 67% respectively.

On October 20, Matson released its third quarter 2022 performance forecast. In the third quarter of this year, Matson Shipping expects an operating profit of US$310 million to US$315 million for the shipping business and US$19 million to US$20 million for the logistics business; the company’s consolidated net profit is expected to reach US$257.3 million to US$262.0 million, diluted per share Gains of $6.67 to $6.79.

In the third quarter of this year, the load capacity of the Hawaii route decreased by 7.1% year-on-year, mainly due to lower retail-related demand; the load capacity of the Alaska route increased by 10.6% year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in seafood exports on the Alaska to Asia Express (AAX). And retail-related demand increased; due to the drop in demand, the cargo volume on the China-US route decreased by 15.1% year-on-year; the cargo volume on the Guam route decreased by 1.8% year-on-year.

Rising Amazon storage fees force sellers to raise prices

Although shipping costs continue to decrease, various costs that affect sellers' profits are still increasing. Recently, the doubling of Amazon's peak season storage fees has caused many sellers to complain, and peak season profits have been swallowed up by storage fees. It is Amazon's consistent practice to charge additional delivery fees during peak seasons. Not only delivery fees, but also storage fees during peak seasons.

"Sea freight has continued to decline, but since October, the peak season storage fee has increased by 3.5 times, and since the 15th, fFBA has increased by 0.35-0.5 per piece, and the peak season price increase is imminent." A seller said with emotion.

Royal Mail to cut around 10,000 jobs

The union has threatened to strike for a further 16 days in November and December, but has not notified Royal Mail. Additional strike days beyond Oct. 25 will significantly increase losses throughout the year and may require further business restructuring and staff reductions.

Royal Mail has released an updated trading report amid the ongoing wave of strikes, revealing an adjusted operating loss of around £350m for the full year. The group said it plans to achieve short-term cost benefits by cutting around 5,000 full-time operational jobs (fte) by March 2023 and around 10,000 jobs by the end of August 2023. Some British sellers who have used Royal Mail services recently suggested that they should replace the yodel service of the Royal Mail UK special line, so as not to affect the shipping time due to the Royal Mail strike.