Maersk and CMA have announced that they will add a call to Shekou Port and cancel a call to Hong Kong port on Safari/Shaka2. Maersk said this would enable them to provide reliable direct service to South Africa from export markets in southern China. The change will take effect in November and the new docking sequence will be: Shanghai-Ningbo - Shekou - Tanjung Palapas - Port Louis - Durban - Tanjung Palapas. The adjusted maiden voyage will be carried out by the 9000TEU container ship "CCNI Arauco", which is scheduled to depart from Shanghai on November 17 and arrive in Shekou on November 26. https://www.sofreight.com/

It was reported that on October 26, about 6,500 port alliance members in 23 ports in Chile started a 48-hour joint strike action, paralyzing the main port terminal operations. According to reports, the ports of San Antonio, Antofagasta, Iquique and San Vicente may be most affected by the shutdown. Some of the affected companies have communicated to customers the paralysis of their business, regretting the impact on the logistics of goods caused by the strike. Shippers and forwarders who have recently shipped to Chile should pay attention to the impact of logistics delays.

October 21 - The Port of Los Angeles, the largest container port in the United States, is suffering from an inventory glut and a drop in cargo volume during what should be its busiest shipping period. Freight data is often seen as a barometer of economic health. Freight data generally precedes the economy, and freight downturns tend to precede economic downturns. Consumer demand is slipping as inflation continues to push up retail prices. Shipping costs have worsened as carriers, fearful of a recession, have reduced capacity. Growth in American imports has lost steam. Retailers with excess inventory canceled overseas orders, and shipments fell in what should have been a busy shipping month. Weak industry outlook Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said the outlook for the rest of the year would be "soft." Its cargo volumes plunged in September, falling for the second month in a row. Seroka said the port transported 709,873 20-foot equivalent containers in September, down 22 percent from the same month last year, and the month's cargo volume was the lowest in seven years. He also noted that volume so far is down 4% from last year's record levels. Inbound containers at the Port of Los Angeles and the neighboring port of Long Beach fell 26.6% last month from a year earlier to 343,462 containers, the lowest inbound volume for the month since 2009. Seroka blamed the slowdown on record high inflation, high fuel costs, high interest rates and other uncertainties that have made Americans cautious about discretionary spending. Retail sales were poor in September

CMA CGM informs its customers of the following Peak Season Surcharge: From November 1st, 2022, loading date From all North European, West & East Mediterranean, North African, Adriatic, Baltic, Scandinavia, Latin America, New Zealand, Djibouti, Jordan, Saudi Arabia Red Sea, Yemen ports To Angola, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo Cargo: Dry, Out of Gauge, Break Bulk Amounts: EUR 200 / GBP 175 / USD 200 per Unit

A strike by South African port and rail workers entered its seventh day on October 13th, according to the latest news that wage talks between the state transport group Transnet and unions remain deadlocked. At present, shipping companies have issued an early warning, stopped some relevant booking operations in South Africa, and released the situation of ships affected by the strike. South Africa's national transport group Transnet declared force majeure at its ports on Oct. 6 after its employees went on strike over a wage dispute, bringing the country's main ports and rail freight services to a standstill and limiting exports of minerals and other resources, CCTV News reported. A huge backlog of container cargo in the port! Ship waiting to unload Staff shortages caused by the strike are affecting onshore and landside operations at the port of Durban, one of the continent's busiest ports, which handles 65 percent of South Africa's container volume, Transnet Ports said in an update on its website. "Please note that operations at Container Terminals 1 and 2 and the Durban roll-off Terminal have been affected due to strike action. Appointment slots have been suspended. Please do not send trucks to the docks until further notice." The port operator said. Here is a summary of the ships likely to be affected by the current strike, as published in an October 12 update from Haberrot. For your reference: The CEO of the South African Ship Operators and Agents Association said there was currently a huge backlog of container

As the European economy declines and inflation intensifies, the cost of living is rising, and the labor crisis faced by the United Kingdom is also intensifying. After just announcing layoffs, a new round of strikes at the U.K. container port Liverpool has come again. According to local media reports, workers of The Unite Union are planning to hold a second round of strikes from October 11 to 17 local time after talks with Liverpool Port operator Peel Ports Group failed to raise wages. . This means that if labor disputes continue to ferment and strikes continue, port congestion in the UK and even Europe will rise to "unprecedented levels", further increasing supply chain risks.

On Sept 28, the 50th train of "Shanghai" China-Europe freight train depart from Shanghai. The train, loaded with 50 40-feet containers full of auto parts, mechanical parts, ceramic products and other goods, will depart from Minhang, Shanghai to Khorgos, and travel to Hamburg and Duisburg, Germany via Malaszewicz, Poland At the same time,"Jinbo" China-Europe freight train which is thousands of miles away, was also launched as well, starting from Hamburg, Germany. This is the second consecutive year that the exhibits at the China International Import Expo, have taken the China-Europe train from Hamburg to Shanghai. In the past year, the "Shanghai" China-Europe freight train has operated a total of 50 trains, loaded 2,518 containers (totaling 4,950TEU), with a total cargo weight of more than 37,300 tons and a cargo value of more than 1.637 billion yuan. Full coverage of the outbound and return journeys of the line and the Central

Liverpool, Britain's second largest container port, has begun two weeks of strike action from September 19th until October 3rd. Note that the Liverpool strike is expected to coincide with another round of strike action at the country's largest container port, Felixstowe, where workers will stop work for eight days starting Sept. 27. Maersk Line issued an alert and updated contingency measures to deal with the strike at Felixstowe and Liverpool, including changing fleet lineups and scheduling changes. On September 22, COSCO Shipping Lines issued a notice of strikes at the British ports of Felixstowe and Liverpool. Cosco may need to reschedule ships and modify shipping schedules as no Labour is available for working ships during the strike. Shippers pay attention to the relevant ship schedule adjustment.

The two largest U.S. ports, Long Beach and Los Angeles, handle nearly 40 percent of Asia's container trade. However, affected by the cooling of the U.S. economy, the current volume of container arrivals at the two ports has dropped significantly. It`s report that the import volume of the Port of Long Beach has been declining for two consecutive months, while the import volume of the Port of Los Angeles in August decreased by 16.8% year-on-year. On September 20, it was reported that in August this year, 1,796,661 sea containers were shipped from Asia to the United States, a decrease of 1% compared with the same period last year. This is the first year-on-year decline in 26 months.

Recently, a China-Europe freight train loaded with auto parts and food completed customs clearance at Tianjin Xingang Customs and sailed from China Railway Tianjin Container Center Station to its destination Moscow. According to statistics, from January to August this year, a total of 533 China-Europe freight trains were shipped from Tianjin Port, carrying 57,228 TEUs of goods, a year-on-year increase of 75.3% and 75.1% respectively.

Mid-Autumn Festival is coming! Yitong Logistics wishes you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival! May you have a bountiful autumn harvest, a bright moon, and a warm family reunion.

On 19th-23rd Oct, Yitong Logistics will attend the 2022 WIFFA Annual convention, which is one of the largest freight forwarder and logistics events in China. Our booth no. is C15. Welcome to join us!

It is understood that pilots at Lufthansa Airlines are planning a one-day strike on Friday, which will also affect the carrier's cargo subsidiary and inconvenience businesses scheduled to transport goods. A more serious threat to shippers and Lufthansa Cargo, logistics experts say, is future strike action that lasts longer and could disrupt supply chains. The German airline said it had cancelled 800 flights at Frankfurt and Munich airports on Friday and a small number on Thursday as pilots' unions announced a 24-hour strike in a pay dispute.

To ease the congestion at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach in U.S. , more and more imported containerized cargo is being shipped to the east coast. On Aug 14, the average container hold time at the Port of Los Angeles dropped to less than four days, the lowest level since April 2021. Southern California is a hub for trucking at U.S. ports, and trucking outbound shipments across the U.S. have begun to pick up since the port of Los Angeles decreased container delays. While the Port of Detroit also contributed significantly, the data changes at the Port of Los Angeles were more valuable than other hubs. Los Angeles trucking outbound shipments are up 12% since Aug. 17, while dry box trailer outbound shipments across the U.S. rose nearly 3.5% last week. In the neighboring market of Los Angeles, Port Ontario, Calif., outbound traffic has grown steadily in August, up 14.1 percent since the first week of the month. At Port of Savannah, Georgia, the average daily volume of imported boxes in August was 4.6% higher than in July. This is the highest level of containerized imports at U.S. southeastern ports since 2018. Rising imports also contributed to a rise in truck outbound shipments this month, up 18.3% since Aug. 2. It is expected that the outbound traffic will continue to increase in the future.

The latest findings from Sea-Intelligence, a maritime data analysis company, found that the demand for containers in the container market is moving in line with the capacity of the global fleet. Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, delves into what reduced market capacity due to ship delays means for the effective growth of global fleet capacity and its impact on the global supply and demand balance. Murphy said that while nominal fleet capacity grew steadily at about 4% per year from 2020-2022, actual fleet available capacity declined sharply as delays began to worsen, reaching a low point in February 2021, with a considerable difference between nominal and actual available capacity. Photo From :Sea-Intelligence The chart above shows the growth in available fleet capacity and the growth in demand for TEU*Miles compared to January 2020. The large spike in demand in February 2021 and 2022 is the effect of the Lunar New Year and does not indicate any underlying change. Murphy said it was clear that the "extreme strength" in favor of shipping companies in 2021 was driven by cumulative demand growth that continued to outpace available fleet capacity. The impact began in July 2020, and the imbalance between supply and demand has only begun to taper off in recent months. It is understood that a pandeme-driven surge in demand helped ship companies post a staggering $43.9 billion in operating profit in the first quarter of 2022. In fact, demand consistently exceeded capacity by 10% from No

On August 21, with the departure of the China-Europe train (Xi'an-Hamburg) from Xi'an International Port Station, since the beginning of this year, the total number of China-Europe freight trains has reached 10,000 trips since the beginning of 2022, which is 10 days earlier than last year. This year, a total of 972,000 TEUs of goods have been shipped, a year-on-year increase of 5%, and the comprehensive heavy container rate has reached 98.4%.

Affected by the global environment, such as pandemic, inflation, strikes and weak demand, market freight rates have been falling. Comprehensive current major shipping index shows that the freight rate index continues to decline, the freight rate of the main airlines has been falling continuously, and the freight rate of individual airlines has been nearly halved. Maintenance network has sorted out the market situation of some routes in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and so on in recent weeks for your reference, as shown in the following diagram:

As of the end of July, the China Europe Railway Express (CR Express) has connected 196 cities in 24 European countries! The accumulated value of goods is nearly 300 billion US dollars. The logistics service network of (CR Express) covers the entire Eurasian continent and has become an international public logistics product widely recognized by countries along the route.

Nearly 2,000 workers at the Port of Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port, are planning an strike over wages dissatisfaction. The strike will last eight days from Sunday 21 August until Monday 29 August. The union says the strike will hit UK supply chains, the logistics and haulage sectors, as well as international maritime trade.

Against the background of unprecedented severe inflation situation in Europe, some European countries began to put political pressure on their liner companies, hoping that these companies could help the government and jointly shoulder the responsibility of fighting inflation. CMA and Maersk are the representatives of the liner companies affected. The move came shortly after CMA , under pressure from the French government, reduced freight rates for French importers and exporters. As of August 1, freight rates for all container goods imported by French companies from Asia will be reduced by €750 /FEU. A reduction of €750 /FEU for all goods destined for French overseas territories; For all exports of French enterprises, the freight is reduced by 100 euros /FEU. The move is aimed at reducing the cost of imports and exports for French companies and will last for a year. Maersk followed CMA in coming under political pressure from the Danish government to "follow the example of CMA and offer freight discounts to domestic importers and exporters to support their development". Maersk, however, rejected the Danish government's request. Maersk responded explicitly: "We believe in an open market economy. We believe that all customers are important, no matter what industry they are in or what country they come from. Therefore, we are not considering shipping discounts to customers in fixed locations depending on where the headquarters are located." Cma's concession contrasts with Maersk's hardline stance, although some in the industry say the price cut is a "pre-emptive"

Port of New York and New Jersey announce that a new container imbalance fee will be imposed on ocean carriers, in order to encourage them to move containers out of ports more quickly. According to the new tariff, port`s new container export levels mandate that export volumes must equal or exceed 110% of an ocean carrier`s incoming container volume during the same period. If that benchmark is not met, the ocean carrier will be assessed a fee of $100 per container for failing to hit this benchmark.

While major container ports on the East Coast remain congested, some of them have relatively good cargo mobility. As container liner companies shift the docking ports of some routes from the western United States to the eastern United States, the pressure on the East coast logistics network has increased sharply. At present, among the top 10 container terminals in the East of the United States, there are four terminals with long waiting time, namely New York and Elizabeth Terminals belonging to the Port of New York and Garden City and Savannah Terminals belonging to the Port of Savannah. As the chart below shows, the average moored time in New York Harbor has fluctuated between 20 and 50 hours for most of this year, well above last year's levels. Last year it rarely exceeded 20 hours, and the average over the last three years has rarely exceeded 10 hours. The other six terminals are operating normally with relatively short waiting times, including Norfolk International and Virginia International Container Terminals at the Port of Norfolk, Mach and Newark terminals at the Port of New York, Park Avenue Terminal at the Port of Philadelphia and Wando Welch Terminal at the Port of Charleston. As the chart below shows, the average waiting time for container ships at the Port of Norfolk rarely exceeds six hours, and is currently almost zero. The four congested terminals are the busiest on the east coast and can accommodate larger ships, including the largest VLCS. Notably, among the six less congested terminals, Virginia International Container Terminal and Wando Welch Terminal have also dock

Shanghai Express,a cross-border railway service, embarked on its maiden journey between Shanghai and Central Asia on July 28. The train is heading to Almaty, Kazakhstan, carrying over 980 tonnes of goods, including air conditioners, cloth, mountain bikes, strollers, electric ovens, ect. Since its first freight in Sept, 2021, Shanghai Express has handled 35 China-Europe cargo trains, loaded with 3,438 TEUs of goods.

As of 18:00 on July 24, the container throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has exceeded 20 million TEUs this year, reaching 20.0543 million TEUs, which is 22 days earlier than last year's "20 million TEUs". Ningbo Zhoushan Port has continued to make efforts to unblock the two-way "arteries" of land and sea. In terms of "sea direction", Ningbo Zhoushan Port fully utilizes its hub advantage as the world's largest port, strengthens linkage with shipping companies, and effectively meets the needs of foreign trade enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region and the Yangtze River Economic Belt through measures such as opening new routes, increasing space, and adjusting empty containers. logistics needs. Since the beginning of this year, the total number of container routes in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has continued to rise, and has now reached a historical high of 300, with 182 "20,000 TEU" container ships. In terms of "land direction", Ningbo Zhoushan Port takes advantage of the direct access to the three major port areas by railway, strengthens communication and coordination with the Railway Bureau, intensifies a number of sea-rail lines, and ensures the operation of key trains. As of July 24, Ningbo Zhoushan Port has completed sea-rail combined transportation business volume of 854,000 TEUs this year, a year-on-year increase of 31.7%.