Coronavirus – Current Situation And Impact On Shipping Schedules

Posted on Mar 3

03/03/2020

We’d like to inform you about the current in China as reported by our representatives there:

OVERVIEW:
– Factories are increasing their activities each week and are producing orders, but are still not operating at full capacity yet.
– Full production capacity is expected around the middle of March 3, 2020
– Air and Sea bookings have increased substantially over the last week and we expect this to continue for the coming weeks. As production resumes, we expect there to be heavy booking volumes until the backlog levels out.
– Interstate trucking in China still has major constraints, but we do expect this to gradually improve as certain health restrictions are reduced. As long as the number of cases continues to reduce, we should see the strict regulations gradually decline allowing truckers to resume their day-to-day without major delays.
– Hubei province remains under lock-down for at least another week.
– South Korea trade lane market has been acting normal, but could be constrained in the near future due to the number of COVID-19 cases rising.
– Factories in Southeast Asia and Indian Subcontinent countries having production delays due to delays with goods coming in from Chinese Suppliers.

AIR FREIGHT:
– Capacity on the outbound market from China is very tight, and the rate environment is extremely volatile at the moment.
– Intra-Asia markets are heavily congested
– Forecasts and pre-booking are highly suggested in order to get space and move cargo accordingly.
– Sea freight bookings are being transitioned to air freight bookings due to time constraints which is creating further pressure on the air freight market.
– V. Alexander & Co., Inc. is continually working in the background to provide customers with expedited air freight services and charter options to help move your cargo as quickly as possible.
– Air freight rates will continue to rise as demand rises.
– Belly cargo on passenger aircraft will continue to be very tight due to restrictions of passenger airlines flying in and out of the affected areas.

OCEAN FREIGHT:
– More blank sailings were announced, but ocean freight space is available at the time being.
– We recommend making bookings 2-3 weeks in advance to ensure space for the desired sailing.
– As mentioned above, there has been a substantial increase in booking activity over the last week.
– The inbound market continues to deal with congestion and carriers have started to impose various surcharges on freight moving to China and other parts of Asia.
– Ports are operating normally.
– Equipment availability is currently not an issue.

Our Airfreight and Ocean freight Teams are monitoring all shipments and will contact you as soon as possible should your cargo be in any way affected by flight /sailing cancellations or delays.

Please follow us on our website www.valexander.com where we will provide information as soon it is available.