With global supply chains continuing to struggle against pandemic-related congestion and disruption and traditional peak seasons being extended, or seemingly never ending, we are anticipating a pre-Chinese New Year rush in December/ January and would recommend planning supply chains well ahead for 2022. ‘Forewarned is forearmed’ as the saying goes… Despite inventory levels sitting at their lowest ever recorded levels …
DP World has opened an 11.5 acre container park near Southampton, to increase storage capacity during the peak pre-Christmas season and work has begun on a fourth berth at London Gateway container port, to increase supply chain resilience and create more capacity for the world’s largest vessels. The new park at Southampton will be able …
Taking advantage of current market dynamics shipping lines are trying to move the biggest shippers – retailers and manufacturers – onto two-year terms for 2022, with some container carriers trying to negotiate even longer periods, of three or even four years. Contract rate spreads from base ports in China and other parts of Asia are …
Despite continuing global demand and freight rates breaking all records, vessel schedule reliability hit an all-time low in August and now ports have begun to turn away empty containers, due to the build-up of equipment that is delayed in its removal as a consequence. Although schedule reliability has hovered between 35%-40% for most of the …
Multiple issues are negatively impacting container haulage operations from ports across the UK, with inevitable financial and service impacts, which are likely to impact every importer of full containers. In the worst cases, if no action is taken, importers may face very significant additional charges, with no guarantee of delivery. Full load importers are facing …
Despite the massive challenges, our air freight team continue to find solutions for critical cargo and our Sea/Air services are invaluable for time-sensitive shipments. With options from across Asia, via a choice of hubs including Singapore, Colombo and Dubai, we offer the widest choice of service, transit and rates. There is a massive surge in …
The HGV driver crisis, which has been gathering pace over the last two decades, has been largely hidden due, in no small part, to effective transport management by the freight forwarding community. But the situation has been exacerbated by Brexit and tax changes which encouraged 20 thousand European drivers to return to the continent and …
The core problems impacting containerised shipping – the slow circulation of ships and containers, port disruption and the HGV crisis – are clearly worsening, as they diminish available capacity supply and continue to drive spot rates to record levels on pretty much every lane and every combination of port pairings. It is this loss of …
The circulation of container equipment and vessel schedule reliability continues to be a struggle, with our own analysis confirming that transit times from key origins increased by an average of 14 days and while some improvements have been made, we expect these to be undermined by the Yantian and Ningbo terminal closures. Aside from the …
Container imports at the US’ ten largest ports increased 14.3% year-over-year in July and ocean freight supply chains, now in their second year of extreme dislocation, are threatened by shipping lines suspension of merchant haulage. The complete erosion of sailing schedule reliability, ships waiting longer to berth, sub-standard port operations and delays unloading containers are …