Sydney Port and Industry Update – MUA action to cease, further Congestion Surcharges and more
Good Day All,
It’s been another eventful week in the logistics space. Please find our update below as we head into the end of the week.
Patrick / MUA Action
After lengthy talks at the Fair Work Commission the MUA will cease all industrial action at Patrick terminals cease. While this is welcome news there is already a lot of damage done and the issue of Port Congestion will be a continued hurdle for some time which is also highlighted in a statement by Patrick here “At least now we can get on with clearing the backlog which exceeds more than 100,000 containers around Australia. My operations team estimate it will take between two and three months to return to normal.”
We hope that a return to normal will be sooner but we are also mindful of the incoming holiday ‘peak’ season and will watch this space carefully.
ANL / CMA CGM Group Cyber Attack
The latest shipping line to succumb to a Cyber Attack has resulted in a huge administrative increase in already difficult times. At the beginning of the week ANL systems were down but they have slowly been coming back online at the back of this week. We are still seeing delays in receiving Import Arrival Notices, Charges and Delivery Orders and are working with them as best we can under the circumstances.
At this stage, their website is not running which is preventing container tracking creating additional pressure as people turn to phones and emails to seek information. It is not known exactly when services will return to normal and we are recommending clients and transport providers to book any ANL / CMA CGM containers for last free day collection to allow a buffer in receiving Delivery Orders.
Mediterranean Shipping Company – further Port Congestion Surcharges
MSC have announce further port congestion surcharges for Brisbane and Melbourne, the notice can be found here. The basis of their claim “The congestion in the port of Sydney, initially caused by weather related incidents and then further amplified by recent industrial action, is now causing extended delays at both the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane.” While Brisbane and Melbourne scheduling has suffered from some unexpected changes and some delays the consistency and length of delays is not to the level being experienced in Sydney and we would hope that MSC reconsider this surcharge prior to implementation.
No other shipping lines (at this stage) have put out any notification of the same however we will continue to monitor and report if anything is received.
Have a great weekend.
Kind Regards
SILA Customer Service