Covid and its implications in shipping

2020 is coming to an end and we can begin to sum up a very strange year both in sea freight and in many other areas.

Lockdown in China and rapidly reduced capacity at the shipping lines posed a first challenge for the Swedish export industry, which was without equipment this spring when imports fell sharply. Furthermore and as countries globally closed down, new behaviors emerged with a clear focus on consumption before travel and entertainment, as is well known, much of the goods are manufactured in Asia and especially China.

A number of Covid restrictions where introduced around the globe who imposed many things, for example within ports that limited its capacity. We have an upcoming Brexit pushing Hugh volumes to ensure arrival in the UK before 2021 and potential new customs rules and a number of strikes for example in India, Australia and Canada that directly affect the average time as a unit is “loaded and occupied”. An average that has gone from about 45 to +65, which directly affects the capacity of empty units. All above in combination with weather and storms has also affected the level of service and where the shipping lines previously reported so-called on time performance around 85%, to now be at an average around 65%

Above a selection of external factors that together have broken down old and previously structures and created a situation we have never seen before where demand far exceeds capacity in all segments of logistics but especially sea freight, this despite the fact that about 98% of the total container fleet is in operation.

The key to solving this historic situation is that in close cooperation, with good foresight, we reason and create the solutions that suit you and the transport in question.

Please feel free to reach out for further details,
Mest regards
Henrik Bengtson