Sea Archives | Page 55 of 70

Potentially disruptive rail strike averted in US, while, unfortunately, UK braces for more

Sep 22, 2022 | Rail, Sea, Supply Chain

President Biden’s administration has averted a rail strike that would have caused further issues within the country’s fragile supply chain infrastructure, while rail strikes will recommence in the UK from October, following the recent deferment of the original announced action.

US shippers and retailers had warned of the negative effects of a rail strike and the ‘11th hour’ contract agreement brokered by Biden’s team shows that the White House was particularly sensitive to the issue, as any strike would have had a hugely negative impact on the pending midterm elections.

Freight railroads and unions reached the tentative contract agreement for 60,000 employees just hours before a strike or lockout could have happened from midnight last Friday.

The deal brokered by the Biden administration averts a strike that had the potential to impact the country’s supply chain, by disrupting the movement of containers inland and the positioning of products throughout the country.

Shippers are relieved that the devastating nationwide rail strike has been avoided, with many applauding the Biden administration’s intervention, at a time when high inflation and economic uncertainty are challenging consumer budgets and putting business resiliency at risk.

Confidence in rail freight transportation is higher in the wake of the tentative deal and with many of the biggest volume shippers moving freight worth billions of dollars via the rail network, their dependency on reliable services is absolute.

The tentative deal means railroads and ports can unwind the contingency plans they had begun to implement ahead of the strike deadline, with inland ports resuming normal operations.

However, train strikes are set to resume in the UK, after unions cancelled their most recent planned action following the Queen’s death, with ASLEF train driver members at 12 rail companies set to strike on Saturday 1st October and Wednesday 5th October. This does also effect the movement of containers throughout the UK and puts further pressure on the inland logistics required for export and import movements, including an upsurge in demand for pure road transport, especially if the strikes are longer than 24 hours.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has also announced a strike for the 1st October among its members at Network Rail and 14 train companies.

Workers are striking over pay and conditions, with unions objecting to pay offers that sit well below inflation.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “We will continue to negotiate in good faith, but the employers and government need to understand our industrial campaign will continue for as long as it takes.”

Previous rail strikes have had restricted direct impact on our container movements, but we monitor the situation closely and our transport team work closely with our rail service providers, to work around potential disruption.

If you have any questions, concerns, or would like any further information regarding the situation in the United States, please don’t hesitate to contact Kevin Lake, who leads our North American operations.

Threat of port strikes to Christmas

Sep 1, 2022 | Sea

Dock workers at Felixstowe finished their first strike in over 30 years on Sunday, after members of the Unite union withdrew their labour for eight days in a dispute over pay, with Unite members at the Port of Liverpool announcing it is likely to follow suit within weeks.

The 1,900 workers at the UK’s largest port completed their walk-out over a 7% pay offer on Sunday evening, but were told by the port’s owners not to report for work until Tuesday, which meant they lost the opportunity to work vessels on overtime on bank holiday Monday and is an unfortunate sign of how acrimonious the situation may have become.

The port's owner has gone on record saying the pay offer, which includes a £500 one-off bonus payment, was "very fair”, while Unite have said they will not put the offer to its members, as they want an improved pay offer in line with the rate of inflation of between 7% and 12.3% before doing that.

The union Unite warned it would set further strike dates if the company would not negotiate further, with Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, suggesting industrial action at Felixstowe could continue until Christmas.

The Metro transport team managed to clear all of your containers from Felixstowe ahead of the strike and have coordinated haulage capability to collect inbound containers, as they are discharged from the vessel and cleared through customs, now the strike is over.

Export containers were redirected to other gateway ports on alternative vessels. Strategic planning has ensured that your products continue to flow through the supply chain, despite the challenges of the port closure.

Dates for any strike action have yet to be determined at the Port of Liverpool, but the workers’ position remains unchanged, with 500 set to walk out over an “inadequate” pay offer and carriers planning to use alternative UK or non-UK gateways as industrial action looms, to try to avoid further disruption.

While we continue to monitor and manage the situation at Felixstowe and other ports affected by industrial action, our focus remains the continuity of operations, to ensure that your supply chain is protected at all times.

To learn how we work around disruption and port congestion, please get in touch with our sea freight director, Andy Smith, who can advise on our preparations ahead of threatened industrial action.

US inland port will reduce pressure on Los Angeles and Long Beach

Aug 31, 2022 | Sea, Supply Chain, United States

The Mojave Inland Port site is adjacent to the Mojave Air and Space Port, a fully operational airport capable of accommodating large cargo aircraft, with a Union Pacific rail line running through the site and the capacity to handle up to 3,600 trucks a day and three million containers per year once operational.

The project received approval from officials in California to move forward with the transportation and logistics hub, to provide a critical relief valve for the West Coast gateways, that have been continuing to choke with container traffic and have run out of land, to add capacity.

The Mojave Inland Port will be located 90 miles west of the ports in the Mojave Desert, on 400 acres of land, with the project costing an estimated $75 million, that is being privately financed.

The new inland port will save shippers time and money by moving their containers speedily, it is claimed inside three hours, instead of sitting in the port or terminals for days or weeks waiting to be transported.

One of the major causes of port congestion on the west coast is the number of containers waiting to be transported, with more than 33,700 designated for rail sitting on the Port of Los Angeles docks, nearly four times the number that would typically be waiting on a recent survey.

The Port of Los Angeles, America’s largest container port, handled 10.7 million container units in 2021, the busiest calendar year in the port’s 115-year history and Long Beach set a new record in 2021 by moving 9.38 million cargo containers, up 15.7% on 2020 volumes.

With no letup in container traffic since the beginning of the year, the ports reported record container movements in July which continued robustly in August, with both ports very interested in the project and encouraging of the development.

Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said he supports the Mojave Inland Port project. “The Mojave Inland Port is the type of innovative solution that will alleviate congestion and allow dockworkers to do their jobs more efficiently, getting goods to businesses and consumers faster.”

On the 9th August officials in Kern County, where the inland port site is located, issued permits for its zoning and site plans, with building permits the next step and a groundbreaking scheduled for next year. The desert port is scheduled to become fully operational in 2024.

The Mojave Inland Port will service containers transporting consumer goods from Asia, which represents 40% of the freight that moves through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

If this programme is successful we suspect that it will be emulated globally, including in Europe, to move container holding facilities inland. It is one that is worth noting and watching, for slicker supply chains reliant on an ocean freight model.

We always explore contingency opportunities that deliver product to market in the USA, avoiding congestion and delay. We will monitor the progress of this project and will engage with the executive team at an appropriate time.

If you trade with the United States and would like to explore our capability, please contact Kevin Lake, who leads our North American operations.

Metro environmental focus not impacted by pandemic

If you use ocean freight you can’t ignore IMO 2023 – what is it?…read on to find out the implications.

Aug 31, 2022 | Environment, IMO 2020, IMO 2023, Sea

The supply chain challenges that have been driven by the pandemic and continue today with endemic congestion and disruption are significant and need attention, but preparation is needed for significant changes and challenges that are waiting just around the corner.

For close on two years everyone’s attention has been focused on operational, congestion and disruption challenges and when talk turns to the future, it is almost exclusively focused on when transit times will come back down, shipping schedules become accurate and freight rates return to sensible levels, rather than the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2023 rules aimed at reducing emissions from vessels, which come into force in just 12 weeks.

On 1st January 2023 the IMO will adopt revisions and make additions to its initial strategy to cut greenhouse gas (GHG), by targeting vessel efficiency and carbon intensity to reduce total GHG emissions from shipping by at least 40% from 2008 levels by 2030.

Vessels will need to meet a specific Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI), have an enhanced Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) that lays out the vessel’s energy efficiency improvement steps, and determine Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) rating scheme.

The CEO of a leading carrier explained that to improve the energy ratings of old ships you either use biofuel, or you have to slow the vessels down and calculated that his line would lose between 5 and 15% capacity to comply by lowering speed. This is a major impact on supply chain speed to market that is imminent in being implemented.

The IMO 2020 low-sulphur rules, were well-known for a decade before implementation, yet many only started to devote effort into the issue as we got into 2019 and many shippers only became aware in the second half of 2019 and were very surprised.

The soon to be introduced IMO 2023 rules were agreed upon in 2018, giving five years to prepare and while the new rules will involve carriers having to slow some of their vessels in order to meet the new requirements, the number of vessels affected and how much this will potentially reduce global capacity is presently unknown.

IMO 2023 rules will be more difficult for older vessels than for newer, more fuel-efficient vessels, and could have a more profound impact on smaller regional trades than major deep-sea trades, where most new tonnage operate.

Shippers that source in alternative regions and smaller locations dependent on feeder services, may find that effective capacity is reduced, services cut and transit times extended.

The IMO 2020 rule change was comparatively simple to explain - “We need to buy more expensive fuel - and while the IMO 2023 rules are more difficult to communicate, their impact on the supply/demand balance in some trades will be very clear.

It helps a little that the entry into the new IMO 2023 is not a “big bang”, as was the case with the low-sulphur rules and will come into effect over time, as vessels get to their next certification, but presently it appears the market is on track for a repeat of the IMO 2020 debacle where many shippers felt it was a surprise sprung on them at the last minute.

Global supply chains are going to be under pressure for a while yet, and we will share the most important IMO 2023 developments so that you are informed and prepared to make critical decisions.

Please contact Elliot Carlile, or Andy Smith to discuss your supply chain expectations and the potential impact of IMO 2023.