Lockdowns in China Causing Chaos
Shanghai container port has been operating but the lack of trucking capacity has resulted in chaos in supply chains. According to a global forwarder, trucking and entry problems are creating pressure at some yards in Shanghai port. Additionally, some carriers which include Maersk and ONE, have “started to cancel calls at Shanghai to instead provide intermodal services, such as land-to-water or rail.”
As more export volumes have been redirected to Ningbo, supply chain conditions were also worsening there, another forwarder said. “The situation at China’s second biggest port has worsened, with more COVID cases and measures introduced. This has combined with a lot of shippers trying to re-route cargo from Shanghai through Ningbo, especially those in Jiangsu, Anhui and Sichuan provinces.”
As China continues to adhere to its zero-COVID strategy, Sunny Ho, executive director of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, speculated whether there may be a renewed push towards sourcing in Southeast Asia.
“Shanghai’s hinterland extends much further into the East China delta, and the lockdown consequences extend into these vast areas as well. In the short run, overseas buyers may switch some procurement to alternative manufacturing areas, like ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and Mexico.”
However, Mr. Ho said production capacity in these areas may be insufficient, given their reliance on China for raw materials and intermediary goods. He added, “But in the longer run, the diversification process – which began before the pandemic – is expected to resume, and may gain some momentum.”
Source: The Loadstar
Additional Information:
Manufacturing shutdowns, closed warehouses and severe disruptions to trucking capacity – despite government steps to ease road restrictions –- are causing the availability of exports to plummet. Air and ocean export volumes are sinking with them.
As a result, air carriers have announced widespread cancellations, and some ocean carriers are already skipping Shanghai port calls. If the lockdown continues, carriers will likely cancel some ex-Asia sailings altogether. Congestion continues to build at the nearby port of Ningbo which is facing its own increase in positive cases in the area. Reports of outbreaks and travel restrictions at major inland ports like Nanjing in the east and Guangzhou in the south could lead to full lockdowns there as well.
In the meantime, some vessels skipping or departing less full from Shanghai and elsewhere due to the slowdown in available shipments have more capacity free for other stops on their loops, which together with the decrease in demand from the shutdown regions could explain the dip in overall ex-Asia rates.
USA Terminal Operations Update
Due to increased volume, shippers are experiencing congestion issues at the following terminal locations New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Houston, Oakland, and Los Angeles/Long Beach.
U.S. East Coast
- New York – Vessel waiting time is 1-4 days due to berth congestion and 1 crane’s being down at APM Terminal. High wind is expected tonight.
- Philadelphia – Vessel waiting time is 0-1 day due to certain level of import volume.
- Norfolk – Vessel waiting time is 2-4 days due to high import volume and berth congestion due to vessel bunching.
- Charleston – Vessel waiting time is 4-12 days due to high import volume, low productivity, and labor shortage.
- Savannah – Vessel waiting time is 1-3 days due to certain level import volume and current terminal system upgrade issues.
- Miami – Vessel waiting time is 0-2 days due to certain level of import volume and holiday closures.
U.S. Gulf Coast
- Houston – Vessel waiting time is 2-12 days due to high import volume, labor shortage and vessel bunching.
U.S. West Coast
- Long Beach – Vessel waiting time is 24 days due to high import dwell and labor shortage.
- Los Angeles – Vessel waiting time is 28 days due to yard congestion, high import dwell and labor shortage.
- Oakland – Vessel waiting time is 12-15 days due to high import volume, labor shortage. Yard utilization is at 90% of capacity.
- Seattle – Vessel waiting time is 2 days due to high import volume, labor shortage.
Canada
- Prince Rupert – Vessel waiting time is 14 days. Yard utilization is at 100% of capacity.
- Vancouver – Vessel waiting time is 28 days. Yard utilization is at 120% of capacity.
Vessel Operations
North America East Coast
- SPIRIT OF SYDNEY V 216 – delayed 2 days in arriving in Philadelphia due to bad weather on Pacific Ocean transit. Vessel omits Charleston. Arriving on time in Port Chalmers on June 4th.
- SEASPAN CALICANTO V 216 – delayed 1 day in arriving Houston due to berth congestion in Puerto Cortes. Arriving on time in Manzanillo on April 30th.
- MONTE TAMARO V 214 – delayed 7 days in Houston due to port congestion.
- MONTE PASCOAL V 215 – delayed 3 days in Houston due to port congestion.
North America West Coast
- MAERSK NORTHWOOD V 216 – delayed 3 days in Long Beach due to port congestion.
Impacts to Department of Agriculture, Water & the Environment Service
Stockwell International wish to advise that the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the department) has recently issued Import Industry Advice Notice 58-2022 in relation to impacts to service standards in Victoria and New South Wales.
This is in response to our call for official advice to assist intermediary service providers to help explain delays and to pass on legitimate costs to importers.
In particular, FTA has been inundated with member enquiries in terms of foreign owned shipping lines capitalising on the current operational environment by issuing significant container detention penalties.
What has changed?
The department continues to experience high volumes of inspection requests and services across Victoria and New South Wales; the department’s ability to meet service standards for inspection bookings, in these states, will be impacted over the coming weeks, and possibly beyond.
Imported cargo declarations for 1 July 2021 to 28 February 2022 have increased by 17% compared with the same period last year; while high value cargo has increased by 4%; and low value cargo has increased by 18%.
Since January 2022, the department facilitated over 20,000 client-initiated inspection bookings in Victoria and New South Wales.
The department acknowledges clients are currently experiencing delays. All efforts are being made to manage increased workloads to meet service standards, while we also manage an ever increasing biosecurity risk profile.
What is driving this?
A combination of high volumes of incoming cargo, our borders reopening to passengers and cruise vessels, a changing biosecurity risk profile, as well as the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, both across the department’s workforce and at third party premises. As a result, inspection appointments are experiencing delays and in some cases are needing to be rescheduled, often at short notice.
During this period of enormous trade and global pandemic disruption, we have continued to detect and manage many biosecurity risks.
Australia is lucky to be free from many of the world’s most damaging plant pests however, serious biosecurity risks such as khapra beetle, invasive ants, giant African snail and brown marmorated stink bug are being detected at the border and in some cases post biosecurity and require active management to prevent establishment.
Exotic plant pests are capable of damaging our natural environment, destroying our food production and agriculture industries, and some could change our way of life.
Serious animal biosecurity risks threats have emerged at the same time, such as Japanese encephalitis which has now been identified in more than 60 piggeries in four states of Australia.
We also continue to manage the escalating threat of some significant animal diseases that remain exotic to Australia but are moving ever closer to our shores.
For instance, lumpy skin disease continues to spread in our region, with 18 countries officially reporting outbreaks of the disease for the first time and 3 countries including Indonesia reporting their first outbreak since the start of 2022.
An outbreak in Australia would have significant impacts on cattle health and production and present a serious and immediate risk to Australia’s live and boxed beef and dairy trade.
In 2021, the department responded to over 2,000 post border biosecurity detections and to date in 2022 we have had 480 detections. Some of these have required redirection of significant resources to investigate and manage.
How is the department responding?
Resources are being diverted from other areas to assist with surge capacity where possible, particularly across the inspection and booking functions. New recruits are being deployed where we can.
The department is also offering to inspect cargos on weekend and after normal business hours.
Inspection requests for highly perishable airfreight consignments and live animal imports are being prioritised with the department actively working to bring forward delayed appointments for other cargo.
We acknowledge these are challenging and frustrating times for all. But we do expect these delays to continue for some time, although we will monitor and adapt as we can to the prevailing situation
The department continues to implement new initiatives and technologies to streamline the way we work.
This includes changes to our IT systems as outlined in Import Advice Notice 36-2022, the phased deployment of the Biosecurity Portal to automate the booking process, and automation of our assessment and workload management systems.
These initiatives have and will continue to deliver efficiencies in the biosecurity system including time and cost savings to industry.
How industry can help
The department would like to advise clients of information that may assist in avoiding delays in processing your requests for inspection:
- Many LRNs are not able to be finalised at initial assessment because a lack of information from the client. These initial assessments are taking up time and do get put back into the queuing system pending the information being supplied. We encourage you to check LRNs for completeness and accuracy prior to submission.
- The inspection appointment provided is the next available at the time of processing your booking request. Please do not repeatedly call or email the department checking on the status of your request for inspection as this compounds delays.
- Ready Now: If your goods are ready at short notice, notify the department by selecting this option on your booking request and you will be placed on a priority list to gain an appointment should cancellations occur. It is important to note that this is for short notice availability, and you would need to be able to present the goods with 30 minutes
- Extended hours:
The department offers out of hours inspections. If you would like to select this option, please nominate your goods availability and preferred day and time. Note overtime is subject to availability and additional charges may apply if the inspection takes place before 6:30am or after 6:30pm, Monday to Friday, on the weekend or on Public Holidays. Late submission may not be able to be accommodated.
- Ensure any specific additional information is included in the ‘additional information’ field in your request for inspection and consider adequate notice when requesting your inspection appointment.
For further information please contact [email protected]
NEWS: Russian Imports Levied with an Additional 35% Import Duty
On 13 April the Australian Border Force issued Australian Customs Notice No. 2022/21, advising that there would be a new rate of customs duty for imported goods from the Russian Federation and Belarus effective 25 April. Imports from Russia and Belarus before this time have enjoyed import duty rates of 0% at the very least and 5% at the very highest (excluding goods considered to be dumped or for goods subject to excise).
From 25 April, the new import duty rates will increase from the lowest rate of 0% to 35% and from the highest rate of 5% to 40%. Russia and Belarus are not major suppliers of imported goods. Australia mainly imports fertilisers, manufactured wood, and refined petroleum from Russia; and fertilisers, medical instruments, and measuring and analysing instruments from Belarus.Continue Reading | Opinion: Russian imports levied with an additional 35% import duty – is it enough? – Daily Cargo News (thedcn.com.au)
Fuel Surcharge, CFS, Drayage, IPI, Chassis Free, Infrastructure Fee, Wharf Booking Fee, Peak Season Surcharge and Low Sulphur Surcharge
Global Fuel Surcharge
EOS – Emergency Operational Surcharge
Equipment Imbalance Surcharge (EIS)
Effective 15th May 2022
Dalian to USA
$40 w/m
Guangzhou, Tianjin and Korea to USA
$50 w/m
Qingdao and Shenzhen to USA
$80 w/m
Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam to USA
$100 w/m
Indonesia to USA
$150 w/m
Japan to USA
$400 w/m
Hong Kong to USWC
$50 w/m
Hong Kong to USEC
$70 w/m
Shanghai to USWC (Except CHI, DAL, ATL, CLT)
$100 w/m
Shanghai to USEC, CHI, DAL, ATL & CLT
$150 w/m
Philippines to USWC
$100 w/m
Philippines to USEC
$150 w/m
India to USA
$70 w/m
Bangladesh to USA
$130 w/m
Sri Lanka to USEC
$50 w/m
Sri Lanka to USWC
$150 w/m
Peak Season Surcharge
Effective May 15, 2022
India to USA
$25 w/m
Effective May 15, 2022
Pakistan to USA
$50 w/m
Effective May 15, 2022
Sri Lanka to USEC
$37 w/m
Effective May 15, 2022
Sri Lanka to USWC
$25 w/m
Effective May 15, 2022
$50 w/m
Fuel Escalation Surcharge
Due to the current oil crisis affecting fuel prices worldwide, Stockwell International is in the need of implementing an adjustment to the prices of land transportation in Guatemala and El Salvador, called FES (Fuel Escalation Surcharge).
- FES in Guatemala (valid from April 15th 2022): variable surcharge of 15% on the current rate of land transportation
- FES in El Salvador (valid from April 14th 2022): variable surcharge of 13% on the current rate of land transportation
Values will be reviewed and adjusted according to the fuel prices market trend.
Inland Congestion Fee
Effective April 23, 2022
All USA Origins to All Destinations
USD Min $15.00 or USD 13.00 W/M
*Note – excluding Los Angeles origin LCL*
Stockwell International will endeavour to keep you updated with the most recent information as it become available to us.
For any other questions or enquiries please contact [email protected]
