By Arthur  Photo：Tom Fisk, Link：Pexels

At present, there are severe port congestion in few of world's largest container ports. Some vessels have been anchoring in the berth waiting area off the port for 18 days. There is evidence that it is difficult for the United States and many other countries to reserve enough retail goods for the upcoming Black Friday and Christmas shopping boom. As the global supply chain is under tremendous pressure, there are currently 2.7 million 20-foot containers stuck outside the few world's largest container ports. According to Vessels Value’s latest analysis report, more specifically, 409 container ships carrying 2,732,133 20-foot containers are currently waiting outside the port for unloading. These millions of containers are filled with retail and industrial goods.

In the past nine days, the closure of Meishan Terminal has exacerbated the chaos in the global supply chain. According to Vessels Value, as of August 18, a total of 80 container ships, totaling 393,650 teu, were waiting for loading and unloading at other terminals in Ningbo Port. One of the container ships has been queuing up for more than 9 days, the longest waiting time. Vessels Value's analysis shows that in the Port of Long Beach, California, on the west coast of the United States, ship queuing and traffic bottlenecks are also serious. There are 33 container ships lined up outside the port, totaling 255,333 teu, and one of them has been waiting for unloading for more than 18 days.

In additionally, from a report yesterday by Souhang.com, the delays of the Asia-Northern Europe route are also in congestion. The Asia-Northern Europe route, which was originally expected to have a round-trip transportation time of about 75 days, will now take 100 days or more. Among them, the waiting time for ships in the port of Antwerp Up to 10 days. There is good news that Ningbo Meishan Wharf will partially reopen on the 24th and fully open on September 1. It is expected that the entire Ningbo port will resume normal operations in the middle of next month, and it will take 10 to 14 days to clear the backlog of containers.

The bad news is that although other terminals in Ningbo Port can handle 77,000 teu (equivalent to 90% of the overall cargo volume) of container freight per day, delays and ship diversions caused by terminal closures will continue to affect other ports and impact to global supply chain again. The current situation resulting from the closure of Meishan Terminal will continue to pose challenges in the coming weeks. However, in summary, compared with the partial closure of Yantian Port earlier this year, the overall situation is not as bad as expected.

Pulling the camera to Vietnam in Southeast Asia, she is ushering in the most serious wave of the new delta virus. Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city and economic and trade center, has become the "severely-hit area". Starting on August 23rd, the most stringent one has been implemented since the outbreak. Prevention and control isolation measures to stay in one spot. Vietnam has confirmed more than 10,000 new cases in a single day for multiple consecutive days. According to the latest epidemic information, as of 14:00 on the 23rd, Vietnam had a cumulative total of 348,000 confirmed cases and a cumulative total of 8,277 deaths. Among them, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Ho Chi Minh City exceeded 170,000, accounting for half of the country’s confirmed cases, and the cumulative number of deaths was 6,071, accounting for With 73% of the deaths in the country, the epidemic situation is extremely severe. It is reported that from 0:00 on the 23rd, Ho Chi Minh City has implemented the most stringent "in-situs" prevention and control isolation measures since the outbreak. It is required that from August 23 to September 6 the implementation of "martial law" throughout the city, except for the 31 special groups permitted by regulations, all citizens are not allowed to go out. The distribution of food for all the nearly 10 million people will be taken over by the army, police, and government epidemic prevention and control teams. Previously, 19 cities including Ho Chi Minh City were "blocked", which has already caused serious damage to Vietnam's economic production and supply chain. This upgraded version of prevention and control measures is expected to have a more serious impact on factory production and freight transportation. Although the ports in North Vietnam are still in operation (South Vietnam is basically paralyzed), the limited manpower is only a drop in the bucket. Many shipping companies have already skipped to call in Vietnam, they are waiting for the next step in Vietnam.

In recent years, due to the increasing tariffs imposed by the United States on Chinese products and China’s labor costs have continued to rise. Many American manufacturers have shifted production lines to Vietnam, and the United States has begun to purchase more products from Vietnam, including clothing and footwear, furniture, and electric machinery. And equipment and leather products. According to reports, last Friday, 90 chief executives of major American brands such as Adidas, Coach, Gap, Hanesbrands, Nike, VF and Under Armor signed a joint letter to petition US President Joe Biden is speeding up vaccine assistance to Vietnam. They believe that the rapid restoration of Vietnamese industry will minimize supply chain problems for apparel companies that employ 3 million employees in the United States.

There will always be unpredictable disasters in this world, whether it is man-made geopolitical or natural disasters, these are always the challenges of the current global supply chain.