#### Title: Understanding the Impact of Maritime Shipping Costs
Dear Customers,
Today, we would like to share with you an important perspective on maritime shipping costs, a key factor in the global supply chain.
### Key Points:
1. **Seasonal Fluctuations**:
Maritime shipping rates vary according to the season. Summer and the period around the Chinese New Year are often times when costs increase due to high demand and limited ship capacity.
2. **Factors Influencing Costs**:
Fuel prices, market conditions, and currency exchange fluctuations all play crucial roles in determining shipping rates. Unexpected events such as port strikes or congestion can also impact costs.
3. **Production and Logistics Time**:
In the best-case scenario, manufacturing a figurine takes about 3 months. Adding 1 month for quality control (QC) and the necessary time for transportation and administrative tasks, it takes between 4 to 5 months before maritime shipping. This does not include the time needed for upfront validations by rights holders, potential engineering issues, etc., which often means it can take a bit longer.
We plan to make a more detailed post in the future about the entire process of creating a statue from A to Z.
### Importance of Planning
Companies must carefully plan their shipments to minimize costs. This may involve choosing off-peak seasons for shipping goods or adjusting logistics strategies based on market trends.
To learn more about current trends and maritime shipping cost indices, we invite you to check these sources:
- [Freightos Baltic Index](
https://fbx.freightos.com/)
- [Drewry World Container Index](
https://www.drewry.co.uk/)
We hope this information helps you better understand the dynamics of our industry.
Sincerely,
The Oniri Creations Team
