Cutting production ties with China is impossible
In response to COVID developments and rising geopolitical tensions, companies may be re-shoring, or near-shoring production out of China, but the country’s dominance in world trade makes cutting it out of global supply chains impossible, say leaders of two of the world’s most important compan...
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Asia blanked sailings, rolled cargo and detours
Shipping lines have cancelled almost 30% of pre and post Chinese New Year sailings from Asia, with THE Alliance cutting 36% to Europe and diverting backhaul sailings around the Cape of Good Hope, which adds two weeks transit time to China.
In a normal year, the weeks building up to China...
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Chinese New Year + COVID escalation = supply chain disruption in Asia
If travel for the Lunar New Year holidays increases COVID transmission, we will see large numbers of infected workers having to quarantine, which will delay their return to work and factories, hauliers, terminals and ports that would traditionally restart operations by mid-February could be shut ...
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China’s Zero-COVID release may boost global economy
The move by President Xi Jinping to lift China’s zero-COVID strategy and ease travel restrictions has raised hopes that it may soften the blow of higher global interest rates, unleashing production lines and unlocking supply chains after a turbulent three years.
From the 8th January 2023&nbs...
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Schedule reliability and port congestion in decline
The latest, market leading source, Sea-Intelligence schedule reliability figures show a slight decline of 0.7% in September to 45.5%, which is the first fall since reliability began to trend upwards in April and follows the year’s largest reliability increase of 5.8% in August.
The average d...
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Carriers stepping up Golden Week capacity cuts
For much of the last two years, container shipping lines have struggled to maintain sufficient capacity to meet demand, but in recent months demand has fallen away, which means that some vessels are not fully utilised, with carriers blanking more sailings and reducing supply u...
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Climate change forcing new unexpected factory closures in China
Just a few months after Shanghai emerged from the city-wide COVID lockdowns, which disrupted supply chains and forced factories to halt operations, manufacturers have been closed again, this time by the impact of climate change. A new challenge to Chinese production and sourcing.
An inten...
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China Update; Testing prompts Shanghai lockdown scare
With individual district lockdowns and mass testing again underway, the trade press have been reporting that Shanghai could go back into lockdown, which would be a major disruption as we enter the traditional peak season.
It’s been just six weeks since Shanghai emerged from its two-month zer...
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Forecasting and protecting your Asia supply chain
Global sea freight operations have struggled with disruptions since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic over two years ago, and this has continued into 2022, with a peak shipping season this summer that is likely to be very chaotic.
China’s zero-COVID strategy lockdowns have slowed supply cha...
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China exports surge even as consumer demand weakens
Container volumes at eight of China’s top ports surged 25% to 16.8 million TEU in April, largely driven by consumers in Europe and the US, but manufacturers are anticipating weakening demand.
According to figures released by China’s Transport Ministry, only Shanghai recorded a decline in s...
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Demand for Shanghai sea exports may divert to air freight
As COVID lockdown measures are gradually relaxed in Shanghai it is uncertain how quickly export sea freight volumes will rebound, but many experts are anticipating a strong and sustained spike in demand creating a backlog of shipping containers, which could once again result in oce...
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Foreign workers leave China and it is likely to continue as China ‘reshapes’ commerce
Strict border controls amid China’s zero-COVID policy is creating a shortage of foreign expertise, with some suggesting the development could become a permanent feature, with ramifications for supply chains and an accelerating factor for consideration of production moving to alternati...
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