Newsletter – September 28, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Repair cargo scanners at congested Dhaka Airport, urge garment exporters

theloadstar.com
Amid severe traffic chaos at Dhaka Airport, apparel makers, the main user of air cargo services in Bangladesh, have called on the government to act to improve export service quality.
Last week, a delegation from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association met civil aviation minister Mahbub Ali and urged him to increase the number of explosive detection scanners (EDSs) at the cargo village to speed up export cargo scanning. Read more here.

Lithium battery maker airlifts assembly line to leapfrog port congestion

freightwaves.com
In early August, Enovix Corp. completed the installation of specialized equipment for a sophisticated production line in Fremont, California, and is gearing up to begin commercial production of batteries for mobile electronic devices in early 2022.
The ocean congestion gripping U.S. West Coast ports this year could have derailed those efforts. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Costco charters three ships

splash247.com
Wholesaler Costco, the fifth largest retailer in the world, has emerged as the latest American brand on the high street to attempt to take shipping matters into its own hands.
Costco has revealed it has chartered in three ships and rented thousands of containers to shift around 20% of its Asian imports over the coming 12 months. The ships range in size from 800 to 1,000 teu in capacity. Read more here.

‘Plan ahead’, says Maersk, unveiling plans to skip ports as demand grows

theloadstar.com
Maersk says it expects to see “early signs of a pre-Chinese New Year rush in December”, and is advising customers to plan their supply chains “well ahead”.
It also notes that inventory levels in Europe and the US are at their lowest on record and that, even when retail demand declines, “we will see cargo volumes continue to remain strong” as inventory levels are rebuilt. Read more here.

Nationwide port strikes threaten Christmas

thewest.com
Strikes planned at ports across Australia threaten to cripple imports ahead of Christmas.
The Maritime Union of Australia has launched industrial action at Patrick Terminals sites in Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney, in what the shipping container terminal operator has described as “bewildering”.
Patrick Terminals CEO Michael Jovic says the company has been negotiating with the union since February 2020 and has held nearly 70 meetings to finalise a new enterprise agreement. Read more here.

Schedule reliability drops to an all-time low in August

lloydsloadinglist.com
Although schedule reliability has hovered between 35%-40% for most of the year, in August 2021 it dropped to 33.6%, according to issue 121 of the Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, published by Sea Intelligence.
The report covers schedule reliability across 34 different trade lanes and more than 60 carriers. Sea-Intelligence says that 33.6% figure is a new all-time low during the 10 years it has tracked global schedule reliability. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS- GOVERNMENT UPDATES

China’s power cuts may foreshadow shortages of global goods

abcnews.go.com
BEIJING — Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet official energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.
In the northeastern city of Liaoyang, 23 people were hospitalized with gas poisoning after ventilation in a metal casting factory was shut off following a power outage, according to state broadcaster CCTV. No deaths were reported. Read more here.

Costco Limits Paper Products, Water Due to Supply Chain Delays

ttnews.com
Costco is bringing back purchase limits on some essential items and it’s blaming supply chain delays.
During a Sept. 23 earnings call, Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said shoppers will encounter limits on toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and high-demand cleaning products, according to CNBC. Read more here.