Will Waters | Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Although progress has been made to restore main routes to the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions, rail and road operations servicing the key Canadian west coast port remain impacted by the recent flooding in British Columbia

Rail and road operations servicing the Port of Vancouver remain impacted by the recent flooding in British Columbia (BC), although progress to restore main routes to the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions has been made in the last few days, and marine terminals at the Port of Vancouver are still operating.

In an operations update yesterday, the Port of Vancouver said “rail and highway infrastructure restoration work has re-established some key connections between the BC interior and the west coast. Anchorage demand remains high and truck operations at all container terminals remain steady”.

But it said the Vancouver gateway “continues to experience disrupted rail and truck movement due to flooding”, although “significant progress on repairs were made over the weekend on both rail and highway infrastructure”.

An operations update yesterday from shipping line Hapag-Lloyd highlighted that vessel delays, increased yard congestion and heightened anchorage demand are expected at Port of Vancouver for the time being.

Regarding GCT Delta Port Terminal, it said the majority of vessel operations have been idled until further notice, with no local export receiving until further notice, although the import CY gate remains open.

Meanwhile, at DP World Fraser Surrey, it said there were currently “limited operations”.

On the road side, the line said Highways 7, 99, 3 are now open for essential travel only, but

Highway 5 remains closed. And on the Rail side it said rail services were expected to re-start mid-week, but said “a re-start will entail a slow re-commencement and a lengthy recovery period is expected to clear the backlog”.

It reported that all CP Terminals in Canada – excluding Vancouver Intermodal (VIF) – are re-commencing acceptance of DRY Export loads (no reefers), excluding those to DPW Fraser Surrey. But for CN Rail, it said all exports destined to the Port of Vancouver are currently embargoed or not accepted.  

Southern California’s ports of Long Beech and Los Angeles are delaying the implementation of financial penalties on shipping lines for containers left on marine terminals as the situation appears to improve

Containers are moving out of ports more quickly after threat of financial penalties, so implementation of Container Dwell Fee is delayed until 22 November

Consideration of the so-called Container Dwell Fee will be pushed back until November 22, according to a statement. 

“There’s been significant improvement in clearing import containers from our docks in recent weeks,” said Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka. “I’m grateful to the many nodes of the supply chain, from shipping lines, marine terminals, trucks and cargo owners, for their increased collaborative efforts.”

Under the new system which was announced in late October, the ports were due to begin assessing a fee of $100 per loaded container from November 15.

The fee will increase by $100 per day for containers that have dwelled at the ports for nine days and are contracted to move by truck, or that have dwelled for six days and are contracted to move by rail.

Before the pandemic-induced import surge began in mid-2020, on average, containers for local delivery remained on container terminals under four days, while containers destined for trains dwelled less than two days, said the statement.

Since the introduction of fines, the twin ports have seen a decline of 26% combined in aging cargo on the docks over the past three weeks.

 “We’re encouraged by the progress our supply chain partners have made in helping our terminals shed long-dwelling import containers. Clearly, everyone is working together to speed the movement of cargo and reduce the backlog of ships off the coast as quickly as possible,” said Port of Long Beach executive director Mario Cordero. “Postponing consideration of the fee provides more time, while keeping the focus on the results we need.”

The measures, developed in coordination with the US government, are part of the efforts by the world’s largest import country to alleviate the logistics bottleneck that has been threatening its supply chain stability.

The move, however, has sparked a heated debate regarding which parties should pay to speed up the US container flows, with the National Industrial Transportation League arguing that carriers should not be allowed to pass on the expenses to importers.

Sea-Intelligence has published issue 122 of the Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, with schedule reliability figures up to and including September 2021

As the report itself is quite comprehensive and covers schedule reliability across 34 different trade lanes and 60+ carriers, this press release will only cover the global highlights from the full report.

Schedule reliability improved marginally in September 2021, by 0.6 percentage points to 34.0%, maintaining the range of 34%-40% seen throughout the year. The only “positive”, if one should call it that, is that schedule reliability is not plummeting further. On a Y/Y level, schedule reliability in September 2021 was down -22.0 percentage points. The average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved marginally, dropping to 7.27 days, albeit still the highest figure for this month, which has been a theme throughout 2021.

Maersk Line was once again the most reliable top-14 carrier in September 2021, with schedule reliability of 44.2%, followed by Hamburg Süd with 37.3%. Another two carriers had schedule reliability between 30%-40%, with only four carriers recording schedule reliability of 20%-30%. Six carriers had schedule reliability of under 20%, with Evergreen recording the lowest September 2021 schedule reliability of just 11.7%. Six carriers recorded a M/M improvement in schedule reliability, while no carrier recorded a Y/Y improvement in schedule reliability, with all carriers except Maersk Line recording double-digit Y/Y declines of over 20.0 percentage points.

US road freight shortages that have been driving up prices over much of the last year are likely to worsen as demand builds through the summer, further adding to inflationary costs.

Please be advised that the Port of Felixstowe are currently experiencing operational delays. The implementation of a new operating system over the weekend has resulted in severe delays and cancellations across all areas of port operations, including rail, road and shipside container moves.

A number of factors are converging to drive up trucking rates and tighten capacity including winter weather conditions, rising fuel costs, and the new Electronic Logging Device mandate, which is having the effect of reducing capacity, growing import volumes at US ports and a nationwide driver shortage.

Increasing regulation and a shortage of trucks is causing slowdowns in Canada’s intermodal supply chain.

These challenges include regulations on electronic log devices in the US, infrastructure weakness and congestion, a shortage of drivers and increasing costs of operation. For beneficial cargo owners, the problems are being compounded by high service demand for hazardous, reefer and other specialist cargo. The situation is exacerbated by limited free time at US and Canadian rail depots.

Several shipping lines have cancelled their services to and from Qatar and begun seeking new solutions for customers after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) extended a ban on vessels entering its ports under the Qatari flag to include vessels destined for or arriving from Qatar.

Qatar Ports Management Company has confirmed the opening of Hamad port in Qatar from the 1st December 2016.  This port will replace Doha port.  The last container vessel to operate at Doha port will be on 30th November 2016. Hamad port is located 40 km south of Doha, the capital of Qatar. 

Cargo customers of Hanjin Shipping are facing possible delays to their containers following the Korean line’s decision to file for bankruptcy today after its creditors lost faith in its recovery plans.

South Korea’s largest container shipping group today filed for court receivership after losing the support of its banks, raising the prospect of its assets being seized around the world. And ports across Asia, Europe, and the US have already begun denying access to its vessels, Reutersreported.