# Volatile Freight Rates in Maritime Container Industry in Times of Crises
### Overview of the Literature on the Maritime Container Industry during the Pandemic
This resulted in disruptions in reliability and questioning the effectiveness of the functioning of the value chains [13]. The resilience and adaptiveness of the entire world economy and the maritime industry have been tested by certain economic shocks. With the aim of establishing the differences between the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications of the major shocks of similar scale and the assessment of resilience on the maritime market [24], conducted a piece of primary and secondary research. The external shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly influenced all the elements of the supply chain almost simultaneously. Resilience to disruptions remains the key challenge for the global maritime industry. Every crisis the industry faces has to be seen as the event that enables the testing of the adjustability to the fast-changing environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the extraordinary power of negotiation exerted by the shipping companies, which reflected in the growth of the freight rates in maritime container industry and also in the positive financial result [24]. In Europe, the costs of maritime transport tripled after the lockdown was relieved. However, it is important to note that this time, the possibility of reintroducing lower prices to facilitate the quick recovery of the national and global trade is not an option [25]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] analyzed the effects of the pandemic on the import container shipping routes and on the example of the port system in the United States [26]. During the research, the authors observed more than half a million of shipments by Nike and Walmart sent via container ships to the ports in the USA. The ability of adjusting the supply chain to the strong disruption was determined by the choice of the location for the production facilities, the transport company and the capillarity of the distribution network via the port system [26]. Indisputably, the pandemic has seriously affected the stability of the operations in the supply chain and disrupted the maritime container industry [26], and it has also revealed all the vulnerabilities of the supply chain [27]. Although the maritime industry has been facing considerable challenges in the last two years, it is reasonable to expect that the recovery from those challenges will enable the establishment of and transfer to a more resilient system [27]. In 2021, the share of container ships in the entire world fleet was 13.20%, which places them third in the entire fleet. In relation to 2020 (observed in DWT), there was growth of 2.48%, despite the market turmoil. Shipping companies recognized the need for the increase in supply capacities, and thus for the purpose of the possibility of satisfying more demand for container transport in the future as well, at the beginning of 2021, they ordered new container ships. These new orders for container ships are the largest in the last two decades [28]. The size of container ships has been growing over the recent decades to staggering dimensions. It is important to note that the size of container ships increased by 10.9% in the period between 2014-2020. Container ships are now built to be as big as oil tankers and even bigger than dry bulk and cruise ships. The problem arises concerning the size of the channels and ports these vessels have to navigate, which is probably why, for now, the container ship sizes have reached their peak [29]. However, there remains the question of the spike in orders, partly occurring because of the need for the obligatory use of fuels with lower sulfur levels. The decision about the fleet regeneration must not be made lightly and many factors need to be considered because they are different for each company operating in the market [30]. [PERSON] et al. [27] point out that the COVID-19 pandemic has also caused disruptions in container industry in the last-mile delivery, i.e., in the last step of distribution to the final consumer. Bigger disruptions have occurred in the processes between the maritime ports and the markets in the hinterland.