Transport Update 21st July 2021

Welcome to the Zencargo weekly freight market update – the latest news from our freight and procurement teams on the real experience of shippers.

This week: Mid-west intermodal buckles, echoes of Yantian in South Vietnam

• Ocean

• Air

• Road

In Focus: South Vietnam

In a moment of supply chain deja vu, ships are backing up off southern Vietnam as an outbreak of Covid-19 forces a new lockdown in the area. The daily data from Monday shows Vietnam had 4,843 new cases in one day, triple the whole of 2020. This has caused not only a slow down in port operations but also closed many factories, just as demand for products from the area was booming.

While this is unlikely to impact global supply chains on the level of Yantian, due to the smaller volumes in the port, the delays in berthing and consequent backlogs are likely to continue the congestion issues at destination and origin ports that have restricted capacity so far this year. This will further delay recovery in balancing equipment levels and normalising schedules.

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Ocean

Asia

US market

• There is no real change this week, rates have reduced slightly.
• Air China are running flights into JFK on days 3, 5 and 7, helping the JFK market to return to normal
• Spot rates available for heavy/dense cargo as well as volume cargo.
• For all airports – rates and space must be checked on a case by case basis.

EU market (base airport like FRA/AMS/LUX, etc)

• No real change on the Asia-Europe trade lane, with rates reducing very slightly
• China Cargo Airlines canceled its flight on day 3 into AMS and Air China has reduced flights to just day 3 and day, reducing the capacity into AMS.
• Some converted passenger flights are being changed to domestic flights to accommodate summer holiday travel
• Rates and space must be checked on a case by case basis.
  Spot rates available for heavy/dense cargo as well as volume cargo.

UK market

• No real change this week, deferred service rates have decreased.
• There are good spot rates out there if other, regional airports can be used – but there are restrictions on commodities, so it is always best to check.
• There are direct flights with CA/BA, AIR-AIR by SQ and normal air-truck service.
• Rates and space must be checked on a case by case basis.
• Spot rates available for heavy/dense cargo as well as volume cargo.

Americas

• Rates remain mostly the same this week, into UK, Europe and Asia
• Space remains constricted due to reduced capacity.
• US hauliers are still over capacity. We are facing delays and storage charges due to long turn around times with breaking down freight and then long queues at the airports to collect freight. Main hubs such as ORD and LAX are the worst affected.

Europe

• Rates into North America and Asia remain stable this week.
• Capacity to most regions remains severely restricted
• Hong Kong has banned all passenger flights from the UK to Hong Kong to curb the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19.

Road

Availability

Availability generally reliable across all routes and regions.

Rates

Rates are fluctuating in and out of Italy, but remain stable across consolidated, groupage and dedicated trailers on other routes.

Customs

Border situations have improved considerably with clearances running smoothly.

The route ahead

The information that is available in the Weekly Market Update comes from a variety of online sources, partners and our own teams. Click below to learn more about how Zencargo can help make your supply chain your competitive advantage.

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