Category: Coronavirus

Container carriers are injecting additional capacity into the critical Asia-North Europe trade as they prepare for a strong and prolonged peak season and elevated rates. With the massive consumer and inventory demand continuing, carriers are transferring capacity from other trades and deployin... Read more

In an effort to protect supply chains and essential services the government released a list of sectors where fully vaccinated workers may be exempt from isolation if they are told to quarantine after coming into close contact with a positive COVID-19 case. Many of these are within the supply chai... Read more

Container shipping lines are becoming ever more inventive with the names they apply to the surcharges they keep adding to already over-loaded FAK rates. The latest example is Hapag-Lloyd’s ‘value-added surcharge’ of $5,000 per 40ft, from China to the US and Canada. The carri... Read more

Demand for imports from Asia and the Indian subcontinent (ISC) continues to outstrip shipping line capacity, in a sign that with inventories low, second-half volumes are unlikely to let up, keeping pressure on a global supply chain infrastructure that is already buckling. The UK’s primary co... Read more

Containers continue to be in short supply - particularly in the places where they’re needed most - with wait times varying region to region, country to country and port to port. And even the world’s biggest shipping lines are not sure when their containers will be available, or where. Desp... Read more

Economists are convinced that global sea freight demand will continue to outstrip container shipping capacity for the rest of this year and into next year, which is good news for the shipping lines’ bottom line, but not so much for shippers, who continue to pay premiums in order to get their pr... Read more

There cannot have been many weeks when we were either warning of impending rate increases, highlighting recent increases, or explaining why further rises were likely. And while we have protected our customers from the worst excesses of the lines, this article by Mike Wackett for The&nbs... Read more

Global supply chains have been under pressure since the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of last year, highlighting deficiencies that have resulted in disruption, delays and rising costs. Along with a roller coaster journey from start to finish. In time, most of the congestion and di... Read more

Sea freight spot rates have surged further on the trans-Atlantic trade and routes ex-Asia, as a month of port restrictions, congestion and disruption across south China ports diminishes container shipping’s already severe global capacity and equipment shortages. Shortages of space ... Read more

Rising shipping rates, sea freight disruption and port congestion, will only come to an end when global consumer demand eases, shipping lines believe. But as demand continues to outstrip supply, shippers are already in for a bumpy and expensive summer, with backlogs of growth and inventory st... Read more