Africa bracing for food crisis as war cuts grain supply chain
African economies are bracing for a catastrophic fallout from the war in Ukraine. The rapid report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development revealed that in 2020 every single ton of wheat imported by Benin came from Russia, while all imports into Somalia came from either Russia or Ukraine. Three-quarters of Egypt’s wheat came from these exporting countries, and neighboring Libya and Tunisia are heavily dependent on Ukraine.
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Rising volume, worsening congestion dries up European storage
European importers face a growing shortage of storage in container yards and warehouses as highly unreliable supply chains force them to increase orders and build inventory buffers against lead time delays and disruption.
China-Europe volume was up 3.1 percent this January compared with the same month of 2021, after growing 11 percent in the last quarter of 2021, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS).
The demand growth combines with persistent congestion across North Europe hubs where schedule reliability reflects record lows. According to Sea-Intelligence Maritime, the on-time performance of vessels on the Asia-North Europe trade lane plunged to 15 percent in February, down 2.6 percentage points compared with the previous month and a 12-percentage-point decline year over year Analysis.
Read more: JOC
Impact on supply chain caused by China’s countermeasures against COVID-19
Carriers said that while Shanghai’s main container terminals at Yangshan and Waigaoqiao remain open, many depots and warehouses were closed, and trucking is severely curtailed.
Shippers are bracing for greater supply chain disorder amid fallout from China’s lockdown measures and US port labor negotiations. Strict coronavirus control rules implemented in many parts of China have impacted the industry when cargo owners and carriers are prepared to kick off the main season for shipping produce between April and July.
Major carriers are avoiding some coronavirus-stricken Chinese ports due to escalating port congestion. Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows that the queue of vessels keeps growing outside some ports. There are 88 box ships at anchor at Shenzhen port and Hong Kong port as of March 21, up from 50 on March 15. The tally is 130 ships for Shanghai and Ningbo and 24 for Qingdao.
Disruption to container shipping services continues in Shenzhen as the southern China shipping hub strives to comply with the country’s zero-covid policy. While the city government has lifted a week-long lockdown and said the overall situation is under control, precautionary rules remain in place as some districts still report an increase in positive cases.
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Senate moves generational US shipping reform closer to fruition
The Senate’s passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 brings the container shipping industry one step closer to new US regulations affecting container storage fees and the willingness of carriers to accept export cargoes.
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Methanol fuel cell maker scales up
A Danish company hopes to scale up the use of methanol-powered fuel cells to help decarbonize maritime and other industries. Blue World Technologies received €7.5m ($8.2m) from the government-backed Danish Green Investment Fund to help it build a factory in Aalborg. The company said its high-temperature proton exchange membrane cells convert methanol to electricity more efficiently than an engine, though at a higher capital cost and with no particle emissions. The technology has been around since the 1990s but has not developed at scale.
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Logistics platform GSBN dips toes into Europe
Global Shipping Business Network is extending its service to Europe after establishing a presence in China and Southeast Asia. The blockchain-based container logistics platform said it is piloting its Cargo Release application, which offers paperless documentation exchange, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The test project involves terminal operator Hutchison Ports ECT Rotterdam, Cosco Shipping Lines, freight forwarder OOCL Logistics and Chinese merchant trader Sumec Group.
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Highly effective — and accepted — global data standard already exists
Recent calls for a global data standard to facilitate the creation of a national data portal overlook the existence of US Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Automated Commercial Environment System (ACE). This unique system is perfectly applicable to the current situation.
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Marine terminals look for shipper data to clear backlogs
US port executives told the Federal Maritime Commission that while various import arrival and customs release data are available, the port usually has no data on the shipper or forwarder whose containers land there. That additional information enables ports to better coordinate clearing containers from marine terminals toward easing congestion.
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Companies’ measures for digitalization in logistics
Freight visibility provider project44 aims to provide non-traditional customers, like small shippers, consultants, and financial institutions, with a high-level port congestion dashboard. The dashboard (Port Intel) is a standalone subscription product that you can use via project44’s website or an application programming interface (API).
German startup Flowfox is working with Kuehne+Nagel to pilot its platform that automates import clearance and container re-use at European ports with an eye toward global expansion of the solution.
Prompt works with many of the top 25 global forwarders to automate integrations and data entry as a data entry and integration automation software vendor. The company breaks out of its stealth nature of operating with an expansion of the systems it connects.
