French Industrial Action

We have been warning our customers for some time about the ongoing French Industrial Action relating to the proposal to increase the retirement age in France.  This has already caused delays for some shipments and led us to ship some containers from Antwerp instead of Le Havre.

Yesterday, the French Government undertook the decision to push the reform through using special constitutional powers.   As a result of this action, the transport situation in France is predicted to deteriorate.  Ports, refineries, railways, air travel and roadways have all experienced disruption.

There are a number of actions you can take depending on the urgency of your shipment.

Option 1: Shipment from another European port
Diverting orders to other ports outside of France will incur additional transport costs and shipment times will depend on the transit times between ports and shipping schedules.  If you would like to explore this option, please reach out to po@elentenyimports.com, your sales rep, or support@elentenyimports.com. Please bear in mind that using different ports will come with delays due to transit times and congestion caused by the general move away from French ports.  We anticipate that the transfer cost will add a $1 – $2 a case.

Option 2: Postpone non-urgent shipments
For orders that have not already been picked you have the option to postpone the shipment.

Option 3: No change to scheduled shipments
If you take no action, it is likely that shipments will continue to be delayed.

We apologize for the inconvenience just as we were starting to see improvement in the supply chain.  We also want to make it clear that the industrial action is only affecting French shipments.