Chinese New Year

We would like to wish all our clients and partners a happy and safe Chinese New Year (CNY).
With CNY fast approaching there has been additional delays in China due to a shortage of truck drivers who are heading home for the annual holiday. As parts of China are in lockdown a number of provinces and cities require 14 days quarantine before being allowed home and therefore this has lead to a shortage of trucks to move goods in a very busy period just prior to CNY.
Whilst the effects of this shortage have been felt by all in the supply chain once this is added to space, equipment and rate issues from China, it really is an interesting time to be in the international trade and logistics fields.
We continue to work with our partners to mitigate any delays in getting the shipments to the allocated vessel.

Here we go again – Stevedores increasing infrastructure and timeslot fees

I feel privileged that I believe we went two newsletters without providing a notification of an increase in stevedores fees.
There has been notification from Patricks that fees will be increasing for a raft of services from the 01^st March. These fees include timeslot fees, infrastructure fees, sideloader pick up fees and long vehicle fees being introduced.
The increases range from 2.9% through to 47% and in the case of long vehicle fees are a new introduction to the litany of charges passed to the importers and exporters via the transport providers.
In the case of sideloader and long vehicle fees it is unknown what the ultimate goal of the Stevedores are as penalising a certain type of vehicle from entering the terminal appears to be counter productive. As with all fee increases we are working with our partners to reduce the flow on effect however there will be increases from the 01^st March.

BMSB Update

We are in the middle of another substantial BMSB season and a quick note to advise there has been delays at the fumigation companies within Australia to get containers treated locally. Whilst the delays are not substantial there has been a 2-3 day delay in completing treatment and getting the department to release containers.
We will continue to keep our clients updated as to market movements and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us

Take care and stay safe.