Regional Updates
Argentina: Trucking Strike on Mendoza to Buenos Aires Route over.
On Monday an agreement was reached to end a local strike affecting transportation between Mendoza and Buenos Aires that started the Friday before (October 2nd).
Australia – Sydney Waterfront Strike – Although Sydney is not a port we typically use for wine shipments, strikes at Sydney may cause ripple down effects on Australian/NZ shipments. For the moment, the strikes have stopped, and operations resumed. The
two sides now have until November to reach a binding agreement.
North Europe to USA – High demand, full vessels and volume capacity on this trade has been tight since July and current blank sailing programs (cancelled sailings) will continue through the last quarter. Reefer availability is also a challenge from France and this may start to become a problem with other European countries. This will put carriers in the advantage to increase rates for peak season. Place your orders as far in advance as possible at this time.
South Europe / Mediterranean to USA – vessel space is full with 7% less capacity on this trade since last year, but blank/cancelled sailings are expected to decline moving forward and bring some improvement.
South Africa: Shipments at Cape Town continue to experience delays due to terminal operations slowdown over COVID-19 (labor and cleaning closures). Vessels are queuing outside the port region awaiting berthing space, and some carriers are starting to omit port calls.
