Global Shipping Update // Suez Canal

RUDOLF289

As you will have seen, the Ever Given has now been re-floated and is currently at anchor in the Great Bitter Lake, being inspected for seaworthiness prior to it commencing the rest of it’s journey.

Over 400 other vessels were affected by the Suez blockage. Operations are back underway, but it is expected to take from 4-6 days to clear the backlog of vessels waiting to transit the Suez Canal. Therefore, please be advised that vessels which continue their journey via the Canal are likely to be running anywhere from 10 to 16 days late. Also, a significant number of vessels have now been re-routed to transit both North and Southbound via The Cape Of Good Hope.

We do not have revised ETA’s and ETD’s for these vessels as they are considering future plans to recover schedules already affected by severe congestion at many ports. This could include omitting some port calls, re-scheduling, blanking sailings and even cutting loops in order to ‘reset’ interrupted schedules.

We are using rail services as a potential alternative for our clients. Costs are higher than current (high) Ocean rates, but this may assist in maintaining inbound and outbound flow and better transit times. There is a significant volume being redirected to rail services and this may have an impact on space and equipment on this alternative mode of transport.

Of course, export schedules will also be severely disrupted. We have received notifications from a number of carriers advising us of booking stops.

It is expected that congestion in Europe and APAC will worsen and vessel space
and equipment availability will also be severely affected. Other global trade routes and ports will inevitably see the ‘ripple’ effect of this incident. Feeder operations between EU ports and Ireland were already disrupted with significant delays experienced. We anticipate the situation to deteriorate further.

FaaF

Just when things appear to have been improving, we're hit by a disaster in an already struggling industry. It's looking like there'll be no off-peak shipping season this year - just consistently high prices.

RUDOLF289

FaaF wrote: »

Just when things appear to have been improving, we're hit by a disaster in an already struggling industry. It's looking like there'll be no off-peak shipping season this year - just consistently high prices.

Indeed, I already have seen an increase on the rail rates post 15APR21 of between Us$ 600 to Us$ 900 per 40HQ. We are waiting for the shipping lines to "reveal" their pricing. What is clear however from all the shipping lines' notices is that there will be holes in their schedules. Also, the amount of equipment tied up in the delays will make the equipment problem much worse.

And, the European ports are going to be under so much pressure due to Covid and the tsunami of vessels that will be arriving, it will have a major impact on the connections to Ireland.

You can be sure that every available container vessel of any conceivable size is being utilised. But there simply isn't enough capacity to deal with this.

Further updates to follow

Cheers,
Rudolf289

RUDOLF289

https://www-vox-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/2021/4/2/22364278/suez-canal-ship-effects-ever-given-supply-chain

The above article gives an idea of what is ahead of us in terms of increased prices working its way through the supply chains through to consumers.

Reading (Dutch) articles about the preparations being made in Rotterdam (and further inland) to cope with the Tsunami of ships arriving, further delays are inevitable.

FaaF

The ships will be coming in thick and fast throughout this week...

https://www.portbase.com/en/suez/