Week 26 Freight Updates

With sustained consumer demand, The Northwest Seaport Alliance’s latest Gateway Performance and Outlook forecasts another 4 weeks of strong container volumes, especially with the upcoming July 4 holiday slowdown. Then, there’s the industry’s ongoing struggle with ocean carrier scheduling reliability.

According to Supply Chain Dive, global schedule reliability dropped down from 39.1% in April to 38.8% in May of this year, marking a drastic YoY decrease from 74.8% in May 2020. Despite record-low scheduling reliability levels, Transpacific shipping rates to the U.S. West Coast are reaching upwards of $25,000 based on The Loadstar’s data.

Now that the Port of Yantian is back in full swing it’s looking like it’ll take at least a month for the Shenzhen region to clear the backlog of shipments that resulted from the area’s recent COVID-19 outbreak. In other news, the IMO may be running out of time to identify and address ways to decarbonize shipping.

To find out more about the challenges related to achieving zero emissions by 2050, or to read up on any of the week’s other top stories in international shipping, check out the following article highlights:

Gateway Performance and Outlook

Continued strong volume forecasted the next 4 weeks, and the two-day terminal gate closure and no work holiday (July 4-5) will result in increased terminal utilization.

Ocean carrier reliability falls 35 points from last May as congestion persists

Global schedule reliability continued to struggle in May as on time dipped to 38.8%, down from 39.1% in April and from 74.8% in May 2020, according to the latest figures from Sea-Intelligence.

'I paid ridiculous charges, my cargo still got rolled and the carrier wanted more'

Short-term freight rates from China to North Europe have breached the $20,000 per 40ft mark, while transpacific carriers are quoting rates of up to $25,000 to the U.S. west coast.

Yantian port back at full speed; box recovery could take a month

The backlog of vessels waiting to reach berths at the Port of Yantian, the largest container port in China, is gone since terminals returned to full operations on Thursday following a COVID-19 outbreak among dockworkers that significantly curtailed operations, according to an official at shipping giant A.P. Møller – Maersk.

Time is running out – global emissions rules for shipping need to be reached now

The 2020s must be the decade of action if we are to solve the shipping industry’s share of the global climate challenge before we reach a critical tipping point.

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