Industry Update 09/03/21

09/03/21

Industry Update

Singapore
Singapore is experiencing major delays, with vessel turnaround times more than double.
Reported last week in The Loadstar, Peter Sundara of LF Logistics advises “there’s a lot of vessel bunching, which is causing delays, and we see feeders coming in from South-east Asia missing connections with mainline vessels.

In turn, the mainline vessels are coming in overbooked, therefore transhipment containers are missing their nominated vessels and getting rolled – for a week, in some cases”.

Additionally, reports show that wait time in port increased almost 60% from 2020.
Unsurprisingly it is a combination of current factors causing this situation. Increased demand, congestion across all facets of the supply chain, a shortage of useable empty containers and significant disruption to vessel scheduling.

US
The US West Coast has been experiencing significant port and landside congestion for several months. Whilst it is very difficult to predict when things are likely to get back to normal – the usual slowdown after Chinese New Year has not occurred this year and the unprecedented spike in demand for US imports is expected to continue through to early 2022.

According to MSC’s US president and CEO Fabio Santucci “constant and effective cooperation and communication with partners, vendors & clients” as being key to the current situation. “We were talking to shippers and customers in March and April (2020), and no one envisaged what was about to come. We saw spikes of 50-100% of cargo volume” which had put a “massive strain” on a system that was not designed to handle “a sustained surge over more than 30 weeks”.

According to port of Los Angeles Signal port optimiser data, the average time ships are waiting at anchorage for a berth is now almost 8 days. And when they do get a berth – further delays are experienced because of terminal congestion.

The attached picture, as published in Shipping Australia this week shows a photo taken by the US Coast Guard showing the massive congestion off the coast of LA.

Significant delays on the West Coast then cause delays in other countries and further compound the congestion felt across the world in the supply chain.

Australia
Locally, we continue to experience the knock-on effect from congestion experienced around the world. Vessels are arriving off-window, causing berth congestion and some shipping lines have opted to either change port rotation or omit ports in an attempt to reduce the delays.

If you have any questions or need assistance with any of your shipments please contact your local SILA representative.