News & Insights

On the 1st January 2022 the UK is imposing full border controls and many short-sea ports, including Dover and Eurotunnel have opted to use Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) as the frontier control mechanism. We have been using it since its launch at the beginning of the year, for GB-NI m... Read more

The bulk of the world’s trade is shipped in intermodal shipping containers, which have remained largely unchanged since IMO standardisation 50 years ago, but innovation may be the key to reducing supply chain congestion. Is this a new era of global container shipping? Few tools of the global... Read more

Leading commercial property agents have warned that the UK could run out of warehouse space within a year, following the surge in online shopping and supply chain disruption triggered by the COVID19 pandemic. Demand for warehouses and vacant space is being driven by eCommerce, manufacturing an... Read more

CMA CGM has published their Q3 results and in line with the other major Asia/Europe and trans-Atlantic carriers, they have made an extremely high degree of profit, due to the continued demand for space, exacerbated by global disruption diminishing the amount of vessel space available. The CMA ... Read more

Sustained high demand, diminished capacity, COVID-safe work practices and apparent labour shortages, continue to place immense pressure on UK, European, US and global air freight hubs, creating congestion, from Heathrow to Azerbaijan. While there are different situations at different airports,... Read more

The pandemic has underlined the critical importance of the global supply chain, in meeting critical PPE and medical needs, as well as satisfying consumer demand and the challenges in keeping goods moving efficiently along it. The pandemic is creating new challenges for supply chains, as it kee... Read more

Environmental reporting standards for business have been high on the agenda at the UN’s Climate Change Conference – COP26 – currently underway in Glasgow and Metro support the drive for businesses to be open about their impact on the planet, as transparency is an essential precursor for rea... Read more

Many British companies trading with the EU are still failing to understand the extent of their legal obligations to comply with the origin rules of the EU-UK trade deal and could face disruptive enforcement action by customs authorities, when a ‘grace’ period for UK imports ends on the 1st Ja... Read more

Congestion at both ends of the critical Asia-North Europe (this still includes the UK) shipping trade is wrecking vessel schedules, with the average delay of container ships completing a round-trip loop rising by over two weeks, as carriers skip congested ports at both ends, and quite often in be... Read more

The challenges of finding tank containers and getting them booked for vessel loading at origin have been growing, making the transport of dangerous and complex goods more and more difficult. Widespread disruption and delays in the global ocean supply chain have cut available transport capacity... Read more

DP World has opened an 11.5 acre container park near Southampton, to increase storage capacity during the peak pre-Christmas season and work has begun on a fourth berth at London Gateway container port, to increase supply chain resilience and create more capacity for the world’s largest vessels... Read more

Frustrated shippers, trying to avoid further container shipping delays, by switching modes, has driven air freight and charter rates to climb by up to ten times in a single week. Further imbalance between supply and demand is emerging, with the airlines conversion of passenger aircraft into te... Read more