Category: China

Retailers warn of delays after Red Sea attacks

Leading retailers including IKEA and NEXT have warned that the diverting of vessels aways from the Suez canal and around southern Africa will result in delays and may restrict the availability of certain products. Re-routing container ships around Africa adds 3,500 nautical miles to a typical ... Read more

Metro’s new LCL guru

With over 20 years' experience in freight and logistics, the majority of which has been in the ocean freight environment and specifically the LCL product, in the UK and overseas, we are pleased to introduce our new Senior LCL Commercial Manager, Jane Kenny, who is leading this critical service ar... Read more

The real impact of diverting ships round Africa

Following the sharp escalation of attacks on container ships in the Bab-al-Mandeb strait off the coast of Yemen last week, major container shipping lines are diverting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, rendering the Suez routing unavailable for an unknown period. With the Suez route c... Read more

2nd January; Suez Crisis Update

In our 2023 supply chain review we said that we were hopeful that the formation of a coalition naval task force to patrol the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden would restore maritime security quickly, but Sunday’s two attacks on the Maersk Hangzhou suggest it could be some time before the route... Read more

Supply chain; a year in review

2023 was supposed to be the year that global supply chains bounced back from pandemic lockdowns and factory shutdowns, trade wars, tariffs and war in Europe, but now container shipping is disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea and restrictions on the Panama Canal. The COVID pandemic and its after... Read more

Suez and Panama Canal crisis could go either way

The danger to container shipping approaching the Suez Canal comes at a time when the other key maritime gateway, the Panama Canal has been restricting transit numbers and draught limits due to drought driven low water levels. Due to the impact of the prolonged Panama Canal drought carriers hav... Read more

Carriers blank Golden Week sailings

The cancellation of multiple October sailings from Asia to Europe is an attempt by the carriers to push capacity down and raise rates, but if they fail, they may not have another opportunity to significantly raise prices before Chinese New Year, next February.  Container shipping lines ac... Read more

Cutting production ties with China is impossible

In response to COVID developments and rising geopolitical tensions, companies may be re-shoring, or near-shoring production out of China, but the country’s dominance in world trade makes cutting it out of global supply chains impossible, say leaders of two of the world’s most important compan... Read more

Asia blanked sailings, rolled cargo and detours

Shipping lines have cancelled almost 30% of pre and post Chinese New Year sailings from Asia, with THE Alliance cutting 36% to Europe and diverting backhaul sailings around the Cape of Good Hope, which adds two weeks transit time to China.  In a normal year, the weeks building up to China... Read more

Chinese New Year + COVID escalation = supply chain disruption in Asia

If travel for the Lunar New Year holidays increases COVID transmission, we will see large numbers of infected workers having to quarantine, which will delay their return to work and factories, hauliers, terminals and ports that would traditionally restart operations by mid-February could be shut ... Read more