February 25, 2021: Scott Fink, president of Sorfin Yoshimura, told Batteries International on February 25 that he expected the freight market for international battery machinery and battery distribution would start to improve and prices fall from April onwards.

“The freight market continues to present major challenges to international trade due to the lack of availability of equipment, especially sea containers in and out of Asia. This has forced costs to soar,” he said.

“Our expectation is that this will remain a challenge into Q2 2021 although we would expect things to begin trending better now that the Chinese New Year is behind us.”

The overall outlook for the lead battery market, he says, looks positive.

“We’re pleased to see a strong uptick in capital projects around the world and that is contributing to our overall bullish view about the state of the market today and into the midrange future.”

Fink was also positive about a ‘comprehensive digital marketing campaign’ that its affiliate, SY Innovations LLC, has been actively pursuing.

“This will be revolutionary for promotional activity in our industry. This will be valuable for our partners and eventually for the entire industry during the remaining pandemic period and beyond,” he said.