Danish owned factory in Shanghai is having trouble reaching customers

Workers are trying to keep up with the growing orders at Sand Future – Photo: TV2

A combination of shortage in computer chips and the container crisis is making it very hard for the Danish owned Sand Future company which produces high-pressure washers to deliver customers their orders, TV2 writes.

Despite the pandemic the orders have been rolling in at Sand Future factory in Shanghai. This has surprised the Danish owner Allan Sand.

“There were a risk that the sale would come to a hold due to Covid-19 and therefore we didn’t expect this kind of growth. The factory is running seven days a week and we have difficulty keeping up,” Allan Sand says.

Allan Sand has lived in China for 18 years, but right now he is residing in Denmark.

Handling the high demand has not been easy for the company. The container crisis that has hit the shipping industry has also affected Allan Sand’s factory.

A domino effect has happened on the container market where different countries has been closing off ports which has created a great imbalance in the distribution of containers worldwide. In Asia there is a big lack of containers at the moment and the shipping companies are profiting of this situation by jacking up the prices on containers on outgoing freight routes from Asia.

“As you can see, we have loads of complete products in stock, and we have to pay extra to acquire containers. Sometimes the price from China to Europe is ten times more than normal,” The company director, Shirley Shui, says while pointing to the meters high stacks of boxes with ready packed high-pressure cleaners.

Another problem for the factory is the shortage in the computer chips that the company uses for the high-pressure washers.

The U.S. has put a ban on exports of American made computer chips to Huawei in China. This has led to hoarding of computer chips in China. Meanwhile the biggest producer of computer chips worldwide Taiwan has been hit by draught and a lack in water supply which has affected the productivity. These supply problems have forced Sand Future to find new chips from alternative sources and that has delayed their orders even further.

About Lasse Sandholdt

ScandAsia Journalist • Scandinavian Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

View all posts by Lasse Sandholdt

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