By Benny Lim      Photo：Martin Magnemyr

Shippers can take a more comprehensive approach by planning activities, identifying potential upstream or downstream challenges, and using their levers of control to help mitigate risk.

The need for advanced planning has perhaps never been greater than in the last two years. By knowing well in advance what needs to be moved and when, shippers can give marine drayage carriers the advance notice required so they can commit and proactively plan on their end. Shippers should also work to better understand the various entities they work with before their containers reach dray carriers. A lot of parties can be engaged in a container’s movement — like steamship lines, NVOs, freight forwarders, customs brokers, and others.

Even knowing details about steamship lines can help shippers get ahead of drayage challenges. Knowing in advance what terminal a container is bound for can help shippers understand what conditions or challenges they’ll face downstream. For example, they can identify if the U.S. port of entry has on-dock rail service or if the containers will require a chassis and driver to relocate it to the rail terminal before it continues on its way to an inland rail location.

For containers headed inland, shippers can also identify in advance what rail lines a steamship line has agreements with. For instance, knowing the ocean line-and-rail combination for freight destined to terminate in north Chicago, versus in southern Illinois, can give some shippers a faster delivery time and lower cost to their destinations.  

The below is the feedback from China and Southeast Asia branches

Sea Freight in Shenzhen: 

Due to the shortage of goods in the off-season, the two major terminals of Yantian and Shekou are now relaxing the restrictions, changing from the original ETB-7 to ETB-10 days for picking up containers

Air Freight in Shenzhen: 

The volume of e-commerce goods in the market has increased, the position is tight, and the freight rate has risen.

Ningbo

There is an epidemic in the urban area of Ningbo, but it has not affected Ningbo Port. At present, the Beilun Port area is still operating normally.

Normal operation of LCL warehouse Truck drivers still report according to the 24-hour nucleic acid report and apply for a whitelist with a green code plus a travel code. The loading place needs to report or apply for a pass one day in advance.

Qingdao

The American line rate is consistently dropping, and warehouse is still full. Even with the current situation, the drivers of the shipping company are still required to provide a proof of PCR within 48 hours. Furthermore, the drivers need to use an app to make a reservation before going to the LCL warehouses.

Shanghai

Air Freight: This week, the US freight rate continued to rise slightly compared with last week.

The number of people affected by the epidemic in various places continues to rise, and many customers are working from home. Therefore, case by case is required to confirm the pick-up time and delivery time before booking.

Tianjin

The epidemic spread rapidly in Tianjin this week, and the Binhai New Area, where the Xingang Port Area is located, is the top priority. It has been in a semi-closed state, and it is difficult for delivery drivers to deliver goods. The market volume continued to decrease this week.

Dalian 

As the number of cases in Liaoning has increased to more than 500, many factories have stopped production, and nucleic acid reports need to be reported within 24 hours across regions.

Protective clothing and disposable medical gloves are required when entering the port area to pick up goods

Vietnam 

Vietnam officially exports first batch of green-skinned pomelos to US On the morning of November 28, 2022, at the People's Committee of Ben Tre province, an announcement ceremony took place to announce the export of the first batch of green-skinned pomelo from Vietnam to the US market.

This is the seventh fruit of Vietnam allowed to be officially exported to this market, after mango, longan, lychee, dragon fruit, rambutan, and star apple.As planned, the first shipment includes two containers of green-skinned pomelos shipped by sea and two to three metric tons transported by air to the U.S. market.

Thailand

Air -   The air freight and surcharge from Thailand are maintain. 

Ocean - The ocean freight rate has decrease. Slowing export on last month and volume drop. For inbound cargo, the unloading from yard to warehouse took around 3 days.

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