Newsletter: April 25, 2022

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Ukraine war adds pressure to wooden pallet shortage, as prices soar

theloadstar.com
The war in Ukraine has claimed a new collateral victim in Europe: the market for wooden pallets – crucial in the packaging, handling and storage of goods.
According to the European Pallet Association. (EPAL), more than 600 million of its pallets and 20m of its box pallets are in circulation. Read more here. 

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

FMC completes initial meetings with container lines in its review of how they are servicing US exporters

splash247.com
The US Federal Maritime Commission’s Vessel Operating Common Carrier (VOCC) Audit Program last week finished a first round of meetings with 11 shipping lines in its review of how key ocean carriers are serving US export shippers. The VOCC Audit Team is using these meetings to identify which ocean carriers have export strategies and how well those strategies work, and to urge companies without export strategies to establish one. Read more here. 

Carriers adopt ‘hardcore’ blank sailing strategy as export bookings plunge

theloadstar.com
As Shanghai enters the fourth week of its zero-tolerance Covid lockdown, forward export bookings are said to be down by 40% or more, prompting carriers to consolidate loads and blank more sailings.
According to one carrier contact, lines may be obliged to implement a “hardcore” blanking strategy to mitigate the impact of the cargo shortfall. Read more here (login required).

MSC orders 20 boxships in Asia

splash247.com
In its latest weekly report, Clarkson Research Services carries news of a bumper set of orders in Asia by Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest containerline.
Clarksons is reporting Soren Toft-led MSC has ordered fourteen 8,000 teu LNG capable boxships at Chinese yard New Times Shipbuilding and a further six 7,900 teu units at South Korea’s HD Hyundai, the yard formerly known as Hyundai Heavy Industries. All units are due to be delivered in 2025. No price has been revealed for the Chinese vessels, while the Korean ones are costing $134.3m per unit. Read more here.

Montreal Makes Pitch for Ships to Head North Amid Supply Chain Snarls

gcaptain.com
The head of Canada’s second-biggest port has a supply-chain sales pitch few of his peers in the global shipping industry can match: zero wait time at sea for container traffic.
Martin Imbleau, chief executive officer at the Montreal Port Authority, said the ability to dock and load efficiently there is luring new clients even though doing so requires traveling the length of the St. Lawrence River, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Read more here. 

Chittagong port faces severe congestion as Eid holiday looms

theloadstar.com
Chittagong seaport is set to see severe container and vessel congestion in its yards as Bangladesh approaches the nine-day Eid festival holiday on Friday.
Ahead of the closure, some vessels have already been waiting four to five days to berth at the port. Read more here (login required).

CANADA BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Vancouver’s jammed warehouses show why inflation is so sticky

ajot.com
To understand why inflation is running so hot, look to Canada’s West Coast. Vancouver, the home of one of North America’s busiest ports, is bursting at the seams.
The vacancy rate for space in the city’s warehouses has fallen below 1%, according to data from real estate advisory Altus Group Ltd. Industrial rents are soaring and so are land values—if you can find any land to buy, that is. The average home is C$1.4 million ($1.1 million) and developers are eager for new places to build. Read more here.  

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Illegal Canadian trash keeps ending up overseas. And the federal government won’t say who’s shipping it

cbc.ca
The federal government has privately sanctioned several Canadian recycling companies for shipping illegal, unsorted household trash to developing countries, but is keeping the list of names of those caught violating environmental and international laws secret from the public.
A Fifth Estate/Enquête investigation has found that at least 123 shipping containers have been returned to Canada in the past five years after foreign authorities discovered numerous violations of international waste export regulations aimed at stopping Western countries from dumping their trash in developing countries. Read more here. 

2 Years Later: Hong Kong Will Reopen To Foreign Passengers

simpleflying.com
After more than two years of COVID isolation, Hong Kong is prising open its borders from May 1.
In an April 22 statement, the Hong Kong government announced, “From May 1, non-Hong Kong residents will be allowed to enter Hong Kong from overseas places and the route-specific flight suspension mechanism will be suitably adjusted.” Read more here.