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Customer advisory // global seafreight market update

Ablauf Verschiffung (Schritt 4)

Dear customers,
in some information letters we have already kept you informed about the global situation in the shipping industry and, in particular, with regard to Germany. Unfortunately, the situation is still far from improving in the coming months:
  • Lack of space on vessels and container availability have continued to grow in Asia and Europe
  • Global demand continues to grow
  • COVID-19 infections are still spreading among dockworkers and truck drivers
The consequences for the entire sea freight process are significant:
  • Demand has been transferred to other supplier countries that are already facing space problems/container availability
  • Ports, terminals and container depots are congested all over the world
  • vessels cannot meet their schedules and transit plans
  • Containers are not returned empty in time and therefore cannot be reused.
The current situation of the US West Coast paints a frightening picture:
“Only in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach were more than 40 container vessels and another 27 container vessels anchored to the pier until the beginning of February, which corresponds to a quantity of more than half a million 20 containers.” (Alphaliner)
The situation described above leads carriers to take drastic decisions:
  • Adapting ship schedules by omitting ports or delayed departures
  • Implementation of surcharges and/or tariff increases and even termination of long-term contracts and agreements
  • Reduction of freetime for demurrage / detention
  • Adjusted and reduced cut off times and closings
  • Cancellation of bookings and/or leaving containers in the port of departure without prior information (Cut + Run)
  • Rolling of container shipments for sometimes several weeks
In this situation, the BRELOG team is as committed as possible to securing the ship’s space and containers with all options, so that your orders are shipped as smoothly as possible. However, we must be realistic, because the current scenario will continue to accompany us in the coming weeks and months. It is therefore to be expected that:
  • Carriers make further rate adjustments
  • It will be quite difficult to guarantee bookings, containers and ship space.

Therefore, we urge you to confirm your bookings as soon as our team has confirmed space and container availability. Increasingly, shipping companies are already moving to apply FIFO guidelines (First In, First Out), to charge administrative fees or to take negative account of short-term cancellations for future shipments.

The BRELOG team is at your disposal for any questions you may have.

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