3rd Feb 2022
Logistic & Courier Industry and Lockdown and loadshedding, looting and cyber-attacks
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 loadshedding, 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 PORT
Cape Town terminal at 89% capacity with zero reefer plugs available and no active or firm Export Reefer stacks. Previous day as 91% capacity. 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 be constrained.
DALRRD: Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
FMS updates were sent out via email earlier this 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. Clients are moving 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 price increases, as experienced early in 2021. Dead legs and high rates are to be expected as transporters scramble to keep their trucks moving. 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 PORTS
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
Rotterdam Fruit Wharf suffered a Cyber-attack this 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 Airfreight Operations
A warm welcome to Sharlene Jardine our GoAir Airfreight Operations coordinator and Chilton Corrigall, our GoAir Operations and Commercial Manager to the GoGlobal Group. Recent news of both Emirates and Etihad restoring their ZA services is 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.
