This has been a quiet news week with no significant changes in the status of our international shipping operations.
We continue to experience an uptick in bookings, so please make sure your orders are entered as early as possible so that your deliveries arrive on time for your needs.
We will be reducing our fuel surcharge by 2% for all deliveries arriving on or after June 1st.
Latest Updates
- Tariff update: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a noticed today May 27th, 2020 in the Federal Register regarding a requested change in the way affected public comments would be collected and processed for the next revision period (starting around June 23rd, 2020 for the next 180-day review around August 12th, 2020). Additional details can be found here.
- Off-prem retail growth year to date is up 35.6% in volume for spirits, 30.7% in volume for wine and 21.2% in volume for beer
- Dockworkers at the port of Lisbon have announced an extension of their strike action from June 1, 2020, to July 6, 2020. Our contingency plan is to use alternative ports. However, if the strike does go ahead there may be delays from Portugal.
- Reefer availability remains constrained from France
- Please click here for the latest schedule on our low volume lanes.
- Look for the red banner at the bottom of our web page dedicated to our latest updates www.elentenyimports.com
Freight Discounts (Final few days)
As part of our ongoing initiative to support you through these difficult times, we continue to offer a 10% discount on our LCL rates and $800 off FCL shipments. This will apply to all orders submitted by the end of May.
Upcoming Public Holidays
Be prepared for some additional scheduling disruptions around the public holidays, which are:
- Monday, June 1st (France, Germany)
- Tuesday, June 2nd (Italy)
How to Plan
We encourage you to prepare for longer than usual scheduling times to work around holidays, supplier availability, and bookings. Please reach out to us to schedule your shipments as far in advance as possible. If you plan to ship from France, ask us about additional shipping options from neighboring countries.
Distribution Updates
We continue to see a steady and encouraging order volume to off-premise accounts in our Direct Markets. Although some states are announcing partial re-openings, our warehouses have not yet announced changes to their delivery schedules or pick-up policies. We will, of course, notify you as soon as we learn more.
In the meantime, warehouses continue to operate with limited staff, resulting in delayed turnaround times for physical requests and inbounds. FDL’s latest delivery schedule can be found here.
Helpful Resources
- It is estimated that currently, worldwide shipping providers are operating at 50% capacity. This results in delayed and canceled shipments. Click here for a complete overview.
- For the latest on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the drinks industry and the resources that can help, please click here.
- For more information on the impact of COVID-19 on global freight operations, including a country by country overview, please click here.
