Talking about Shipping
Factories in the Philippines are beginning to catch up on production.
However, worldwide port congestion is becoming a significant issue. Our parent company has had a ship waiting at anchorage outside a UK port for almost a month. And this was already delayed on its route from Manilla.
The main US gateway ports on the west coast, Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA-LB), Oakland and the Tacoma-Seattle Northwest Seaports are seeing the same issues, and we are seeing shipping lines are looking for alternative port and diverting ships or changing the order of port calls causing delays.
“Carriers are diverting some vessels or changing the order of ports of call to try and fit into a slot at LA-LB, to at least offload some cargo on a more timely basis,” said Bob Imbriani, vice-president of international services of logistics firm Team Worldwide. “However, there are still significant backlogs in unloading and availability at LA-LB, and we are seeing delays grow at other ports due to the diversions or rerouting of cargo,” he added.
Meanwhile, he said: “We moved 835,513 teu in January, representing a 3.6% increase compared with last January. It is the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year increases driven by the one-way trade of imports.” said port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka
And there are few signs of the situation improving; there was hope the Chinese New Year would give some respite, but this has not happened. For many businesses, tight inventory levels have caused concerns about insufficient stock levels for Easter in the US, as many companies are experiencing sales outstripping inventory.
The National Retail Federation has predicted imports from the far east would produce record numbers of containers at major US gateway port well into the summer.
“Truck and railroad resources continue to be stretched thin, in addition to the winter weather events that we have seen throughout the country over the last week,” executive director Gene Seroka said.
“Local warehouses are at or near capacity and still experiencing reduced staffing levels due to the physical distancing requirements from our medical experts,” he said. “This has slowed their ability to absorb cargo and return equipment such as chassis and containers back to the port system.”
All this off the back of massive increase prices for container shipping that began to rise in July 2020, and although the prices on Drewry’s composite World Container index have now plateaued they have gone from $1,500 to over $5,000, it looks like the prices will stay high for the short term and never come right back down without the intervention of governments around the world.
Sources www.loadster.com & www.lloydslist.com