Ocean carriers are continuing to redeploy tonnage onto more lucrative east-west tradelanes, leaving shippers on lower-paying routes without a regular liner service.
According to Alphaliner, the Asia to Middle East trade is one of the secondary trades most affected by the drift of ships to other services, with no major carrier now able to offer a weekly sailing.
Global supply chains already tangled by the pandemic, labor shortages and sustained consumer demand in the U.S. are getting walloped by another disruptive force: Mother Nature.
Typhoon Chanthu is expected to hover near the mouth of China’s Yangtze River through Wednesday, temporarily shutting operations at major ports. In Texas, the heart of the U.S.’s energy and chemical industries, Tropical Storm Nicholas made landfall overnight, forcing terminals in Houston to curb cargo handling and restrict vessel traffic little more than two weeks after Hurricane Ida barreled into neighboring Louisiana.
Typhoon Chanthu, which hit east-central China on 13 September, is expected to cause further delays for ships waiting to enter the country’s two busiest container ports, with Shanghai and Ningbo having suspended operations again on 13 September.
Linerlytica analyst, Tan Hua Joo told Container News that when Typhoon In-fa hit the same area on 26 July, Shanghai and Ningbo took more than a week to clear the backlog of ships that were waiting outside the ports.
On September 14, a freighter struck the coaster My An 1 at an anchorage off Vung Tau. The My An 1 sank with a cargo of clinker and 40 tonnes of bunkers on board, according to Vietnamese authorities.
AIS data provided by Pole Star shows that at 0220 hours on Tuesday morning, the 13,000 dwt freighter Lisa Auerbach left her anchorage position and headed west, making about 10 knots. She approached the 8,000 dwt bulker My An 1 at about 1928, then came to a stop.
The UK is to further delay introducing post-Brexit checks on food and farming imports to Great Britain from the European Union (EU), blaming Covid disruption and pressures on global supply chains – rather than a failure to fully prepare for the changes due to take place next month.
Measures which were expected to come in next month will now be introduced in January and July next year, Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt today told MPs.
Consumers in the Middle East face slimmer choices in the shops as global liners shun the region in favour of the higher paying main east-west tradelanes.
New analysis from Alphaliner shows carriers have blanked up to 50% of dedicated Asia – Middle East sailings due to a lack of tonnage and vessel delays as well as the keenness to ensure other higher paying routes are better serviced.
Japan’s biggest hydrogen supplier Iwatani Corp and five other firms said on Wednesday they will study the feasibility of building a green liquefied hydrogen supply chain between Japan and Australia that could produce 100 tonnes a day by around 2026.
Green hydrogen is a zero-carbon fuel made by using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is increasingly promoted as a way to decarbonize emissions-intensive long-haul transport and heavy industry.