Developing Issues at Melbourne Terminals

Dear Customers,

While Sydney has not been without it’s issue in the last month, shipping schedule integrity and late changes remain challenging. The repercussions are adding additional strains to not only Sydney  but Melbourne Container terminals as well, were many lines are choosing to re-direct vessels instead of Sydney. Added to this there are scheduled MUA work stoppages to add to the mix among an already arduous landscape.

Below is current update for Melbourne terminal which we would like to share with you;

DP World

DPW have advised all carriers of the expected high volume of vessels coming into their terminal from next week. They are expecting this to be felt through the terminal for at least a 2 week period. The terminal has advised that they are already at capacity for Monday’s bookings and they are likely to reach capacity earlier than normal throughout this time.

Patrick Terminal

MUA planned 8-hour stoppage of work commencing at 07:00 am on Monday 7 September and a ban on the performance of work on the vessel Maersk Semakau for a period of 8hrs commencing at 07:00 am from Monday 7 September 2020 and ban on the working of shift extensions from 07:00 am Friday, 4 September 2020. This is not a full terminal closure but will add strain the their performance while these actions take place and likely have a knock on effect.

VICT

VICT advertises import availability when the first container is discharged from the vessel, our carriers have had multiple occasions when containers are still not discharged until day 2 or 3 of availability that has been advertised. Timeslot bookings cannot be done  until containers are physically discharged from the vessel and are located in the yard adding to the difficulty. This adds further difficulty in being able to give our clients a firm delivery dates as until we source a time slot we cannot confirm these delivery dates. Added to this containers at VICT are stacked into the block system. If a crane/straddle breaks down in that “block”  they are forces to close off the “block” until this issue is fixed and this can happen without warning or even while a truck is waiting to collect a container.

We’d also like to note that in most cases Shipping lines will calculate the detention free time from 1st day of availability which may not correspond to when the container was actually discharged or accessible.

Kind Regards

SILA Customer Service