Cross-border logistics under the epidemic

1) The number of confirmed cases of neo-coronavirus in U.S. West port terminal employees super increases again
According to im McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, the first three weeks of January 2022, more than 1,800 dock employees at U.S. West ports tested positive for New Coronavirus, exceeding the 1,624 cases in all of 2021. Port officials said that although the port congestion problem has been alleviated by the import stagnation and corresponding measures during the Chinese New Year, the resurgence of the outbreak may bring back the problem.
AcKenna also said that the labor availability of dock workers has been greatly affected. Skilled operators are particularly important to the overall efficiency of the terminals.
The combined effect of labor shortages, rack shortages of empty containers and excessive imports is leading to increased port congestion.
At the same time, the U.S. West terminal strike crisis is threatening to rise, and if not handled properly, ocean freight rates could “blow through the roof” in 2022.
International” (blow through the roof).

2) Europe road shipping contract all the big open, freight rates up to 5 times
Not only the sea freight rate continues to climb, due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, many countries in Europe recently also triggered a supply chain shortage due to the shortage of logistics staff “storm”.
From crew shift difficulties refused to return to the ship, to truck drivers worried about the epidemic more than the temptation of high salaries, countries supply chain crisis began to appear. Despite the high salaries offered by many employers, there are still about one-fifth of professional truck driver positions vacant: and the loss of crew members due to blocked shift changes has also left some shipping companies facing the dilemma of recruiting no one.
Industry insiders predict another year of severe disruption, undersupply and extremely high costs for European logistics.
The high level of cross-border logistics as well as uncertainty also makes more sellers’ eyes turn to overseas warehouses to reduce logistics costs. Under the general trend, the scale of overseas warehouses continues to expand.

3) European e-commerce continues to grow, overseas warehouse scale is expanding
According to expert forecasts, Europe will also add thousands of warehouses and distribution centers as a way to meet the growing demand for e-commerce warehousing and distribution, the next five years warehouse space is expected to increase to 27.68 million square meters.
Behind the expansion of warehouses is nearly 400 million euros of e-commerce market. According to a recent Retail report shows that in 2021 European e-commerce sales are expected to reach 396 billion euros, of which the total sales of e-commerce platform is about 120-150 billion euros.

4) Southeast Asia route burst lack of containers, serious delays in the phenomenon of shipping, freight rates rose high
Due to the problem of insufficient supply of shipping line capacity, to sellers shipping caused a certain impact.
On the one hand, part of the Southeast Asia route capacity was adjusted to part of the ocean shipping routes with higher sea freight. 2021 December, shipping companies in the Far East region to deploy the 2000-5099 TEU type ship capacity fell 15.8% year-on-year, down 11.2% from July 2021. The capacity on Far East-North America route rose 142.1% year-on-year and 65.2% from July 2021, while Far East-Europe route achieved “zero” breakthrough year-on-year and rose 35.8% from July 2021.
On the other hand, the ship schedule delay phenomenon is serious. According to the length of waiting time for ships at the berths of major ports on North America and Southeast Asia routes, Ho Chi Minh, Klang, Tanjong Parapath, Lin Chabang, Los Angeles, New York ports are facing congestion.

5) New U.S. customs regulations coming out
A U.S. customs bill proposed last Tuesday could reduce the minimum amount of duty-free goods, dealing a blow to e-commerce-focused fashion brands.
The proposal is the most comprehensive minimum legislation to date. The proposed implementation of the new bill will certainly reduce the amount of customs duties collected and crack down on foreign companies that take advantage of loopholes to avoid customs duties. Some brands in the market, including SHEN, will be affected to a greater or lesser extent.


Post time: Feb-17-2022