Breaking News: WTO ruling on Boeing. The WTO has ruled that the European Union can impose $4 billion of tariffs annually in retaliation for US Government aid to Boeing. It is hoped that this ruling will help to bring to an end the long running subsidy dispute between Boeing and Airbus which led to the US imposing 25% tariffs on some European wines and Spirits. Click here for more details.
Reefer Availability – France We continue to experience reefer availability delays from France as well as blank/cancelled sailing. As shipping volume picks up, in the last quarter of the year, this may cause shipments to slip. It is likely that this situation will continue until the end of the calendar year. If you are shipping a Full Container (FCL), there is the option to ship either a dry or insulated container.
Please submit your orders for OND as early as possible.
California Fires: Due to a combination of high winds, hot temperatures and extremely dry conditions, a new wildfire in Sonoma County called the Glass Fire has prompted new evacuations and road closures (Highway 29 near St Helena which is a major route in that area), and public safety power outages. A red flag alert for critical fire conditions is active throughout Northern California as well as Southern California and LA counties. Unfortunately, many homes and some wineries have been destroyed, you can read the Wine spectator article here.
Longer lead times for LTL reefer trucking, plan ahead. Elenteny preferred carriers, Advantage Transportation and Osborn trucking are experiencing very high demand right now. Coast to coast trucking is taking 2-3 weeks for pickups to be coordinated. Local temp controlled trucking via Osborn is currently taking 3-5 business days to collect. We do have alternative solutions that would have to be quoted and will be higher than either of our preferred carriers. Make sure you plan ahead for November and December by ordering early.
New York and Oakland port delays. Due to congestion at the ports from a busier than expected August combined with a shortage of drayage carriers, there is a delay in getting containers pulled from the port and delivered to the warehouse. This is adding 1-2 day delays on our normal inbound timelines. We anticipate this to be an issue over the next several weeks as we head into the busiest weeks of the second half of the year. Elenteny Imports will monitor and update weekly on this situation.
We would welcome any feedback on our weekly updates, you can also reach out to us with additional questions by clicking here.
Regional Updates:
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 – 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 and advance booking is still strongly recommended.
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.
FDA bi-annual Foreign Supplier Registration Renewal Period.
Starting on October 1st, foreign suppliers will be able to log in and renew their FDA registration Every two years, between October 1st and December 31st, the renewal registration process must be completed. This year, a new step has been added to the process, the 9 digit DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) is required, here is the website to look it up or to register one here. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND contacting your suppliers to make sure they are aware of the upcoming renewal season and they can access their account. Click here for the full notice we received from the FDA.
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 delivery schedule has been updated and may be found here.
News:
- Australian Wine exports are growing, read details here. We have a container departing Australia in October, if you’re interested in adding your pallets, reach out to support@elentenyimports.com
- Read about the new TTB ruling on nutrition labeling and marketing for wine and spirits here.
- New Sales Rep Series on the Alexi Cashen Podcast – an interview tour of sales reps from across the country talking about their city and selling wine during COVID -19, how the art of sales has changed and how it’s stayed the same.
- Read the most recent highlights from Nielsen, published September 17th.
