8th Feb 2022
Raise your hand if you had childhood dreams of living through social distancing, wave upon wave of Covid infections, self-isolating, home schooling, and then top that off with a nice fat global supply-chain crisis. Yeah, I did not think so…
Lockdown and load-shedding, looting and cyber-attacks are just some of the events that the past year has dealt us that still haunts us in this second month of 2022.
2021 was a relentless, rude reminder that while much of our destiny is out of our hands, our resilience, tenacity and grit pulled us through and will keep us going.
Where does this leave us in 2022 you ask. Let me summarise.
Local Ports
CAPE TOWN
04/02/2022:
- TPT advised of network outages from 14h00 impacting multiple services including Navis, GCOS and SAP, nationally. Issues were resolved at 21h00 the same day.
08/02/2022:
- Cape Town terminal reefer stack is at 73% capacity.
- There are currently 373 reefer plugs available.
- There are currently 74 import reefers inside the terminal, with 97 reefers planned to be discharged from the Maersk Luz and MSC Letizia.
- In addition, there are 363 Empty Reefers that needs to be evacuated.
Bookings are still a challenge as well as the congestion in terminal leading to drivers being turned away. Overnight Genset / LAR / Plugin and X-Hauls are no longer ad hoc or exception events and additional costings need to be factored in in advance. There is no doubt that port operations in 2022 will continue to be constrained.
DURBAN
Truck booking system remains congested and truck waiting time fairly extensive, however containers are moving. Durban CFS is experiencing very high cargo and container volumes. Vessel berthing waiting times:- Pier 1 : 1 – 2 days
- Pier 2 : 2 – 3 days
- Durban Point : 3 – 4 days
PORT ELIZABETH / COEGA
Reports have indicated that both ports in Gqeberha are fully operational. Port Elizabeth CFS is experiencing high cargo volumes, however operations are proceeding smoothly and all IDMs are running as scheduled. Vessel berthing waiting times:- Coega : 0 – 24 hours
- Port Elizabeth : 0 – 12 hours
DALRRD:
FMS updates were sent out via email last week. Please refer to the attached.CAPACITY:
Equipment shortages are ongoing and we will continue to experience capacity constraints in various forms throughout the year. All services remain heavily congested and carrier capacity is constrained. Blank or delayed sailings into and out of South Africa are being experienced. Vessel schedule integrity is erratic. Cargo is loaded as capacity is released by carriers and loadings may differ from booking information or published sailing schedules and still the rates continue to climb. General Cargo shippers have reported current rates of between $12 000 and $20 000 for a GP Container!
The fruit industry has decided to move their Far East and Middle East cargo up to Durban to try to work around the extreme delays in Cape Town Port. This has created a shortage of trucks of all kinds and in turn is leading to hefty price increases particularly on the back of the recent fuel increase. Delays, Dead legs and higher rates are to be expected as transporters scramble to keep their trucks moving, as experienced early in 2021. All clients are reminded that comprehensive planning and daily conversations with your Log Manager are critical to ensure a successful 2022. Please send your weekly / monthly forecasts to your Log Manager and CSM as soon as possible for planning purposes.
International
CHINA
Due to Chinese New year, delays in and around Chinese ports were to be expected. However, partial closure of ports in China due to an increase in Covid-19 infections is expected to cause further delays and shortages in the next few weeks. Dalian reported its first cases of Omicron last week becoming the second major Chinese port to be struck by the highly contagious Covid variant after Tianjing.ome shipping lines have suspended operations as at least three Chinese ports, including Shanghai and Shenzhen, remain partially closed. The shipping companies said they are re-assessing the situation before resuming operations. Shipping lines like AP Moller-Maersk A/S and CMA CGM are skipping the Ningbo port after its closure, while some other ships, however, are waiting at a shared anchorage for the Shanghai and Ningbo ports. Truck drivers are also unable to haul cargo from factories to ships and vice versa.NETHERLANDS:
Rotterdam Fruit Wharf suffered a Cyber-attack last week. Initial indications were that they were working on a new system and testing everything yesterday to see if it works, but discharge of cargo might take a little bit longer than usual. Subsequently, shippers were notified that the systems would not be up and running in time to meet the Cold Streams discharge, and would instead be diverting the vessel to ZZColdstores BV in Vlissingen.GoAir
A warm welcome to Sharlene Jardine our GoAir Airfreight Operations coordinator and Chilton Corrigall, our GoAir Operations and Commercial Manager to the GoGlobal Group. Their joining us coincides with the recent news of both Emirates and Etihad restoring their ZA services. We are cautiously optimistic that this is all a sign of more good things to come that will keep this team on their toes.
For any airfreight enquiries, please discuss with your Log Manager.
Interesting read…
Container Transit Times Struggle to Pick Up Steam, Data Shows
