Newsletter – October 8, 2021

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Early planning the cause of September rate rise

aircargonews.net
Airfreight rates on major east-west trade lanes in September rose at a faster rate than last year as companies sought to avoid a peak season crunch.
The latest data from the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index shows that in September prices from Hong Kong to North America increased by 12.7% compared with a month earlier to $9.74 per kg. Read more here.

The Clock Is Ticking: Will The US Open To Europe In Early November?

simpleflying.com
After a lengthy wait, next month should see the US reopen to travelers from Europe. The country announced in September its plans to allow vaccinated passengers from previously banned nations to enter, with November being touted as the month in which this would happen. However, as the reopening approaches, the exact date for this remains unknown. Read more here.

New digital platform tracks air cargo shipments live across supply chain

aircargonews.net
BlueBoxSystems has launched a digital platform called BlueBoxAir, which tracks airfreight shipments at every stage of the supply chain in real time.
BlueBoxAir receives data from more than 130 airlines and more than 1,600 airports globally, enabling it to: receive minutely aircraft positions; track shipments’ estimated arrival times, chargeable weights, transhipment ports and other information; and generate shipment reports. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Biden administration pushing shippers, carriers to expand operating hours

freightwaves.com
Big-box retailers and their rail- and truck-carrier partners are the next targets of a more round-the-clock operating regime being coordinated by the Biden administration to help solve the supply chain capacity crisis gripping the country.
John Porcari, tapped in August by President Joe Biden as port envoy to the administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, told a meeting of exporters on Thursday that over the next 90 days he will work to expand the operating strategy that began in September at the nation’s largest container port complex. Read more here.

Hapag-Lloyd CEO: ‘We are probably in the peak of the problems’

freightwaves.com
Congested ports. Clogged supply chains. Capacity shortages.
Much of Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen’s third-quarter overview had a familiar refrain, one likely to be heard again after the fourth quarter.
But there were two topics Habben Jansen did not expound upon: the buckets of money the ocean carrier likely raked in during the third quarter and the recent investment in a German port. Read more here.

Hapag-Lloyd ship cleared to go as investigators focus on pipeline operator in California spill inquiry

splash247.com
Investigations into last weekend’s pipeline spill off Orange County in California continue with one suspect allowed to carry on its way.
The US Coast Guard had boarded Hapag-Lloyd’s Rotterdam Express earlier this week in Oakland amid a media frenzy that a dragged anchor could have been blamed for the oil washing up on beaches south of Los Angeles. Read more here.

‘A perfect storm’: supply chain crisis could blow world economy off course

theguardian.com
It was all going so well. Successful vaccination programmes were driving the post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, stock markets were back at record highs, and prices were rising just enough to make deflation fears a thing of the past.
But a supply crunch that initially put a question mark over the availability of luxury cars or whether there would be enough PlayStations under our Christmas trees is instead morphing into a full-blown crisis featuring a shortage of energy, labour and transport from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and from Qingdao to Queensland. Read more here.

Liners now on track for combined $150bn in earnings with 2022 poised to create further records

splash247.com
Shipping consultants Drewry have revised their full year forecasts for the combined liner community, now suggesting the world’s containerlines are on course to post “eye-watering” earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $150bn, at least five times previous all time records for the sector. Moreover, despite evidence the spot market might have peaked in recent days, Drewry is forecasting carriers will nail even greater EBITs in 2022 thanks to locking in substantially higher long term contracts with clients. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Recession ‘virtually guaranteed’ amid energy squeeze: Rosenberg

bnnbloomberg.ca
David Rosenberg said it’s growing increasingly likely Canada will fall into a period of recession in the near-term as the headwinds against the economy continue to stack up.
“Compounding all the other issues on the supply side globally is this energy squeeze we’re seeing,” said Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Rosenberg Research, in an interview Thursday. Read more here.

Lingering global supply-chain challenges resulting in months-long wait for appliances

cbc.ca
When Amy Studholme visited The Brick shortly after Boxing Day last year, she wouldn’t have imagined that nearly one year later, she’d still be without the appliances she ordered.
Studholme had ordered a fridge, a stove and a dishwasher. The stove arrived within a few weeks, she said, but turned out to be defective; she had to pay several hundred dollars more for another that was in stock. Her dishwasher only recently arrived at the store, but now she’s waiting on her fridge, so she can bring both of the appliances home at once. Read more here.