October 26, 2020 – Contrary to the economic weakness evident in the USA, transpacific rates from Asia to North America continue to be sold at record levels. Empirical evidence shows that delays of 3-4 weeks are still in place as customers bid up the prices in order to ensure cargo arrives by the US Black Friday. Canaan Transport believes that the peak season will last into mid-November before it tapers off. We continue to assist our customers who need to ship their cargo during this time.
October 19, 2020 – As container shipping’s rollercoaster year continues a steep climb, Jeremy Nixon, CEO of Ocean Network Express (ONE), has declared: “We’re sold out.” “We are now in October, and it’s unbelievable,” Mr. Nixon said. “We’re sold out – the ships are 100% full, the containers are 100% full, you can’t get a container and you can’t pick up a ship from the spot market. The whole container shipping cycle is working at absolute full pelt, and our job is trying to keep the network going.” And fresh operational hurdles are emerging at numerous port congestion hotspots, he added.
October 12, 2020 – The CMA CGM e-commerce sites are operational again after a cyberattack caused them to go offline for nearly two weeks, the carrier announced Sunday. The company said all main functionalities are operational: bookings, tracking, route finder, Myprices and invoices. We are assisting our customers in recovery of their bookings now that their system is fully functional.
October 5, 2020 – Cargo from the diverted vessels that discharged in Halifax due to the Montreal port strike is currently experiencing excessive dwell times, and the lack of sufficient railcars at Halifax to cope with the additional volumes continues. Consequently, arrangements have been made to divert a vessel to Halifax to evacuate the delayed cargo and take it to Montreal for furtherance inland. The MV Glasgow Express 01E38 assigned to the Mediterranean Canada Service (MCA) will perform this transshipment leg. The vessel will call Montreal first and discharge her regular imports. She will then sail back to Halifax to collect the diverted cargo, return to Montreal to discharge and then load regular exports. Our customers that are affected will receive new arrival notices on October 9 for the affected cargo. In Saint John, the situation is much improved and fluidity is improving. It is expected that all diverted Import cargo will be cleared by next week.
October 3, 2020 – CMA/CGM still has not fully recovered from the cyberattack from last week as they have just announced the use of gmail accounts to handle shipments. We will continue to keep our customers apprised of the situation.
October 2, 2020 – As CMA CGM’s IT engineers continue, for the fifth day, to try to restore its systems following a cyber-attack at the weekend, the French carrier has come under mounting criticism from customers that its back-up booking process is inadequate. Yesterday, the carrier said its “back-offices [shared services centres] are gradually being reconnected to the network, thus improving bookings and documentation processing times”. Canaan Transport’s customers have unfortunately been affected and our bookings with CMA/CGM, ANL and their other subsidiary companies have all experienced delays or issues. In addition, the International Maritime Organization has confirmed today that it, too has been subject to a cyberattack. We will continue to update our customers that have been affected by this outage and will provide alternatives where available.
September 28, 2020 – The peak of the peak season is in full swing for international air and ocean freight. For buyers, that means higher costs and delays finding available slots for air and ocean shipments. The Southeast Asia and China export markets are especially hot and could boil into December. Both markets are characterized by extremely high demand and the lack of space in widebody passenger jets, most of which are grounded because the coronavirus has scared people from flying. Trade is strong for several reasons, including companies rebuilding inventory depleted during earlier COVID shutdowns, traditional retail stockpiling for the holidays, huge growth in e-commerce orders and shippers moving out orders ahead of factory shutdowns for the Golden Week holiday in China.
September 22, 2020 – The Port of Halifax continues to experience congestion at its two container terminals. All supply chain providers are working to clear the backlogs as quickly as possible. Current dwell information is about 7-14 days. The situation is larger than just Halifax; supply chain congestion and rail capacity issues are being felt across the country and in the U.S.
September 22, 2020 – In response to the rapid expansion of BMSB throughout Europe and North America, Australia and New Zealand’s risk management for BMSB has started this month. Goods shipped between 1 September 2020 and 30 April 2021 need to be treated and will be referred for intervention if they arrive by 31 May 2021 (inclusive). Please contact Canaan Transport if you have any questions or require container fumigation to meet these standards.
September 21, 2020 – With bookings of U.S. imports from China currently up 89% year-over-year, ocean freight out of China is surging during the COVID-19 pandemic. The spike in volume from China is being caused by several factors, including increased shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as retailers gearing up for the holidays, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This has also caused a spillover effect as shipments from China to Canada are also rising daily. We continue to advise our customers to be aware that rates continue to increase and space remains tight as we head into the 4th quarter.