Delays in China:

We provided a snapshot of the issues around the world last week however it is worthwhile providing a more specific update in relation to China.
Most would have heard there has been an outbreak of COVID-19 in the Yantian and Shekou ports in South China. What this has meant is a substantial amount of delays with vessels coming into port as well as delays with transhipments through these ports.

This has lead to delays through Hong Kong and a more expansive ripple effect across China.  Parts of these terminals are only working to 30% capacity and have been closed for complete days over the past week.

We are working with our partners in China to provide solutions to these issues however with the shipping lines manipulating space from all ports it has meant there is no excess capacity to help relieve the reduction from these ports.

Unfortunately there is no end in sight to these issues and the delays can extend to anywhere between 2-4 weeks from southern China.
We are continuing to monitor all situations and will provide updates as they come to hand.

Local stop work meetings:

The MUA has continued its action of stop work meetings to continue to push for closure on their negotiations with the terminal operators.

Currently Patricks and Hutchinson are still negotiating and therefore the rolling stopwork meetings have been significant.

Our transport partners are working outside of the stopwork meetings to continue to provide the service required by our customers and therefore we have no seen a great impact on the deliveries to date. This however could change at anytime and we continue to monitor the situation.

We have been advised delays at Patricks Sydney are now at 3.5 days for vessels so we are starting to get to significant days involved.
If you are located in Victoria please stay safe during lockdown and do not hesitate to contact our staff with any queries you may have.
Take care and stay safe.