In light of the ever increasing transit times and vessel delays, we wanted to take this opportunity to give some background information on the issues causing such disruption.

Red Sea diversions
Due to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, most carriers are still bypassing the Suez Canal and still diverting round the Cape of Hope.

This is immediately adding approximately 14 days onto standard transit times. We do not anticipate carriers changing their routing any time soon.

Increase in Chinese export demands
China’s GDP grew by 5.3% in Q1, with Chinese exports increasing by 4.9% in the same period. This has lead to redirected vessels to satisfy demand, which frequently brings capacity shortages on European trade lanes.

On top of this, planned higher customs duties for USA vehicle imports from China, has seen a huge surge in demand on China to US trade lanes, again leading to redirected vessels at the detriment of European trade.

Congestion at European ports
Due to redirected vessels as alluded to above, there is a severe back log of containers in most European ports, due to decreased capacity and sailings from Europe.

Typhoons & Golden week
In addition to the above, sailings and loadings will be limited due to China’s strongest Typhoon in over 70 years causing major disruption locally in Shanghai. To create the perfect storm, China also have golden week 1st-7th October, meaning shortage of labour at ports to handle administration and operations of vessels.

Unfortunately, whilst all the above is outside of FS Mackenzie’s control, we endeavour to offer great service on what we can control.

This means timely concise information on ETA’s, along with ensuring everything is in place for the quickest possible delivery to your premises upon containers discharging at UK port.

We thank you for your understanding and continued support.