Shipping Updates October 2022
Port of New York / New Jersey record volumes in August
In August the Port of New York New Jersey took the number one spot in container processing with over 843,191 import and export containers. This puts the port ahead of Los Angeles, at 805,314 and Long Beach at 806,940 for the same month. The East Coast port’s five busiest months have all been in 2022.
This underscores the major frustration motor carriers operating at the port have been facing: the lack of space at the terminals. Without space to accept empties, chassis equipment is tied up and the bottleneck means additional detention and demurrage charges.
Local warehouses, especially for the wine and spirits trade, are completely inundated with inventory and we are seeing delays of several weeks for appointments.
With these record volumes at the port, shippers can expect to see additional charges and delays as providers cannot get into terminals to pick up before the last free day, and additional storage charges if warehouses cannot provide timely appointment delivery windows.
For the latest update on vessel wait times, port updates and trade lane information, see the link at the bottom or here at the port updates page
https://info.hillebrand.com/port-updates
You can also find the Ocean Freight Market Update for October on DHL’s website here
https://www.dhl.com/content/dam/dhl/global/dhl-global-forwarding/documents/pdf/glo-dgf-ocean-market-update.pdf
Port of New York / New Jersey implements long-dwelling container fee
The Port of New York and New Jersey has announced a container fee on any long-dwelling import or export containers starting in September to put pressure on carriers to collect empty containers to make room for the higher volume of imports coming in.
The $100 Container Imbalance Fee will be applied on a quarterly basis to ocean carriers, although we expect carriers will pass along any additional costs through to shippers. The fee is published on the Port Authority website tariff page
https://www.panynj.gov/port/en/doing-business/tariffs.html
Weekend free time eliminated at Maher Terminal (NY) and Long Beach (CA)
The Port of Long Beach no longer considers weekends “free time” for demurrage fees. Weekend days will apply towards total free time for receiving and delivery. You can find the port announcement here
https://polb.com/port-info/news-and-press/change-to-weekend-free-time-exemption-07-27-2022/
The Port of New York Maher Terminal removed the weekend free time exemption as of September 23, 2022. The tariff is posted on the terminal website here https://www.maherterminals.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Sep9-02.pdf
Free time applies at both these terminals during the weekend if the terminal is open. Note that ocean carriers often set their own free time rules which can vary from the port terminals. Most carriers post them on their websites directly.
South Africa Rail and Port Strike this week
South Africa transport rail and port labor unions have not reached an agreement with Transnet and plan to strike starting Thursday October 6, 2022. This will have significant impact on cargo movements and exports to the USA on top of existing space limits and delays for bookings.
You can read more in this article from Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safricas-rail-port-workers-strike-this-week-over-wages-unions-2022-10-04/
Transnet will apply an additional Operations Stabilization Levy (surcharge on original terminal charges) from October 1st through March 31st, 2023, which will be applied to port labor to incentivize and contribute to their wages during the negotiation process and is contingent upon a strike being avoided. It will be included in the fuel neutrality charges to create a combined levy on all container imports, exports and transshipments handled at the container and multi-purpose terminals.
View notice on Maersk’s website here.
https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/10/04/implementation-operations-stabilization-levy
UK Rail and Port Strike Update
The Port of Liverpool will continue their strike action next week, from October 11th through 6AM October 17th, 2022. UK’s rail and train operating companies continue with their strike action and the next walkout is planned for October 8th, 2022.
This will impact scheduled ocean and rail services to ports with vessel diversions to other UK ports. Plan for disruption, road/rail capacity issues and additional delays/costs.
US West Coast Port Labor Update
Longshoremen work continues while negotiations continue on a new master contract, but we do not have official updates as the talks are behind closed doors.
A local dispute with Seattle’s Terminal 5 machinist workers could be used as a bargaining chip in talks and we’re seeing some intermittent disruptions at Seattle.
At Port of Oakland lunch breaks are no longer staggered so operations are interrupted mid-day and this reduces general productivity.
At Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the ILWU security guard union (ILWU Local 26) has ratified a new contract on September 22, 2022, averting a potential strike there.
For more information on impact to active or upcoming orders, please reach out to your representative to discuss your shipping concerns.
View latest port updates on Hillebrand’s website here
https://info.hillebrand.com/port-updates