Congestion in Singapore port has now reached a critical level, which is compounding shortages of vessels and container equipment across most global trade markets.
Containerships are reported having to wait more than a week to gain berths in Singapore; predicted to worsen further during the month of June.
This vessel “queue” has cascading consequences not just in Singapore, but throughout the region and multiplies the “delay days” overall for containers to offload vessel #1, transit through (congested) Singapore landside container yards, and thereafter stack and await whichever vessel #2 is able to be accessed for on-voyage to final destinations.
Overall, we are now seeing delay days via Singapore relay regularly pass through 14-16 days (and still climbing).
Other regional transhipment or relay hubs such as Port Kelang and Colombo are facing similar congestion (and therefore delay).
Major ports in NEA origins such as Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen (Yantian particularly), Busan and Kaohsiung are contending with their own port congestions; whilst not as severe as what is being reported in the main SEA transhipment hubs, there are delays caused by ports congestion all the same.
Equipment shortages for some shipping lines at major and tier 2 (or inland) ports in China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand are being reported.
From a commercial and shipping volume perspective, we continue to see overall booking volumes from NEA, SEA and ISC origins into AU & NZ destinations trending well above YoY comparisons to 2023. Available data from Q1 2024 shows YoY ’23 to ’24 container trade ex China to Australia is up 23%, ex SEA & ISC combined is up 24.4%, and whole of world to Australia is up 15.6% YoY.
As previously reported; shipping line scheduling and shipping line transit times are being battered due to these congestion challenges: percentages for each of liner scheduling integrity and transit time reliability are now unfortunately back in the low teens (similar to the worse of COVID’s global shipping impact).
With the unexpectedly higher YoY container demand being witnessed and combined with the ongoing Red Sea challenges, significant port congestion and container equipment imbalances spanning the key source regions, short notice and opportunistic vessel size reductions on the Asia/Oceania trades which is impacting space availability, ongoing blank sailings, port bypassing and slow steaming practices adopted by shipping lines: it should not be a surprise to the reader that we are seeing further GRI and now PSS advance notifications reported from the shipping lines.
June 01st GRI’s have been applied atop existing May rate structures, quantum of US$300.00 per TEU ex NEA origins to ANZ destinations; and US$100.00 per TEU ex SEA and ISC origins to ANZ destinations.
June 15th GRI will be applied atop existing H1 June rate structures, quantum of US$300.00 per TEU ex NEA origins to ANZ destinations; and a further US$100.00 per TEU ex SEA and ISC origins to ANZ destinations.
PSS (or Peak Season Surcharge) is not yet officially announced by the shipping lines; but there are verbal indicators being raised during procurement and scheduling meetings, which almost inevitably will result in official PSS and/or further GRI increases during July. Please be prepared and aware that if PSS is launched by the shipping lines and given now the broad cost delta between longer term contract ocean freight rates and market FAK ocean freight rates; anticipate PSS also being applied atop BCO and NAC longer term contract rates for the ANZ peak season July-January.
We do recommend to closely monitor your orders placed with any/all overseas suppliers, and lean on your Ligentia CS and management teams for shipping and supply chain support.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.