Category: Supply Chain

Increasing COVID case numbers in China are cutting cross-border trucking capacity, prompting carriers to drop calls at Hong Kong, raising fears that the city is losing shipping line favour as a transhipment hub. With almost one million people in lockdown in Wuhan, where COVID was first detecte... Read more

The vote in favour of strike action in August, in a dispute over pay, would bring Felixstowe to a standstill and cause major disruption to port operations and road haulage transport of containers to and from terminals. The Unite Union’s 1900 members at the port voted overwhelmingly in favour... Read more

With wildfires across southern Europe and the UK experiencing it’s hottest ever heatwave - with freight trains cancelled and the port of Felixstowe putting their gritters out, to overcome melting roads - we review research from the Supply Chain Management Center at the University of Maryland on... Read more

With individual district lockdowns and mass testing again underway, the trade press have been reporting that Shanghai could go back into lockdown, which would be a major disruption as we enter the traditional peak season. It’s been just six weeks since Shanghai emerged from its two-month zer... Read more

Despite the UK’s recent rail strikes having little impact on container movements, the global increase in workplace militancy will inevitably start to disrupt supply chain operations, adding to port congestion. In the same week that the RMT union ran its first week of strikes, road, rail and ... Read more

With the Asia/Europe trade typically mirroring trans-pacific trends within weeks, we are watching how much US importers are pulling back on orders from Asia, and the degree to which container lines will adjust capacity, if demand suggests a slack US peak season, or alternatively a hectic and cong... Read more

Despite the capacity challenges facing air cargo, the industry will not suffer any “lasting negative impact” from the pandemic, because global economies will recover, high value goods require expedited transport and customer demand for speed continues to increase. The pandemic, Ukraine war... Read more

The re-opening of Shanghai after its extended COVID lockdown has not triggered the surge of sea freight that had been feared, but while volumes softened as a consequence, many UK and North European ports are still struggling with congestion. High yard densities at container terminals and inlan... Read more

The accurate weighing of a container is a legal requirement, that is critical for safe handling and correct vessel stowage, to avoid stability-related issues which may contribute to capsizing or sinking of the ship, with severe penalties for non-compliance. The Verified Gross Mass (VGM) declar... Read more

While The House of Representatives passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act this week, to overhaul regulation of the container shipping industry, its focus on detention and demurrage billing and the container lines’ responsibility to load exports, will have little impact on import congestion, or re... Read more

Global sea freight operations have struggled with disruptions since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic over two years ago, and this has continued into 2022, with a peak shipping season this summer that is likely to be very chaotic. China’s zero-COVID strategy lockdowns have slowed supply cha... Read more

While there has rightly been much focus on driver shortages and spiking fuel costs, it is a shortage of engine oil and lubricants that is currently the biggest threat to the road transport of freight. Road transport is an inherent component in almost every freight movement and the critical col... Read more