Situation of shipments from China (September 2021)

ALFA TRADING S.A., a Paraguayan company with extensive experience as a cargo agent and logistics solutions, wishes to inform its clients about the current situation of import shipments from China.

As is public knowledge, the global health crisis caused by COVID 19 affects all import shipments from any port of origin globally.

The main complications are related to the shortage of containers, lack of space in maritime vessels; cancellation of ship departures; delays in the arrival of ships; congestion in ports and occasional closures of these due to Covid-19 outbreaks.

Problems with maritime containers

The severe shortage of containers has greatly complicated the exit of goods from the People’s Republic of China and other Asian countries.

This problem began to affect the situation of shipments from China since the beginning of this year and has become more noticeable in the last weeks of August and early September.

As a consequence, the occupancy of ships leaving from Asia has been reduced to 70-80% of their capacity, not due to lack of goods but due to the shortage of containers in the ports of embarkation.

This problem is expected to worsen in the peak season that begins in October 2021 and ends in March 2022.

Delays and omissions affect shipments from China

Additionally, maritime transport operators announce port omissions from one day to the next and constantly change their departure times.

To this is added that the reliability of the scheduling is at its lowest point, since ship connection delays and errors are very frequent.

Casual events such as a minor repair on a ship can lead to having to reschedule the entire transport operation, worsening the situation of shipments from China.

Also in the ports of the interior of China there are continuous omissions and delay of the feeder.

This means that the feeder space is fully reserved until the end of September, generating a delay in the departure of cargo from this country. For reference, the high demand has caused many ships to have already skipped during the month of September.

We must also report that the FAK rates have reached their highest historical point and are expected to remain that way during the last weeks of September.

In addition to the excessive increase in FAK rates, it should also be considered that there has been a large increase in Premium rates.

In this regard, we want to indicate to our clients that their commercial executive will provide them with the available options and will definitely adhere to their shipping instructions.

Import shipping operations in Paraguay

We also want to refer to the problem caused by the current decrease in the level of rivers in Paraguay and neighboring countries, which seriously affects river transport operations.

To alleviate this problem, it is possible to make changes of destination that allow the transshipment of cargo in trucks instead of using river transport.

Together with our office in Montevideo we can coordinate the multimodal transport services that best suit our clients.

Finally, we reiterate that the crisis in the service chain is present worldwide and no country has been able to escape from it.

As your preferred freight forwarder, at Alfa Trading we are committed to our clients to drive the search for alternatives for the success of their import or export projects.

We are at your disposal for any questions and / or explanations.

Alfa Trading S.A. – ¡Más que Logística, su negocio en buenas manos!
Lic. Liliana Aranda
Alfa Trading S.A.