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.
