Regional Update
Week 43: Oct 19th – Oct 23rd
Oceania to USA – continued fallout from labor action at Sydney port terminals has impacted the container flows for Australia and New Zealand shipments. Ocean carriers applied congestion charges this month for export cargo as well. The largest impact has been for flexigrade container equipment in this area.
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.
