(Yicai Global) March 31 -- The worldwide container shortage, caused by containers stacking up in overseas ports and failing to return to China due to a lack of goods being exported from foreign markets, could last until August or September, the chairman of China International Marine Containers said yesterday.

Global container needs may set a new record this year, Mai Boliang said at the firm’s 2020 financial results briefing.

The shortage has caused shipping costs to soar. China-US and China-Europe shipping lines posted a five-fold gain in freight rates for containers between the second half of 2020 and this January, Zhou Shihao, chief executive of international logistics service platform Yunquna, said earlier this month.

Despite this, CMIC, which makes nearly half of all the world’s shipping containers at 220,000 a month, has no plans to hike output, Mai said. The firm is already working at full capacity, with employees working 11 hour shifts six days a work, and is not accepting any new orders, he said.

Also, the imbalance will ease once the pandemic ebbs, he said, adding that the government is not encouraging the production of more containers.

Profit at the Shenzhen-based firm more than tripled last year to CNY5.4 billion (USD822.8 million), according to a filing to the Hong Kong bourse on March 29. Revenue jumped 10 percent to CNY94.2 billion (USD14.4 billion).

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor