Cologne, 03-15-2011Current information of the global transport situation

Overview of the still very tense transport situation

Ocean freight
It turns out that the precarious situation (lack of equipment, overbooked ships) continues, a significant correction hoped for after the Chinese New Year is not in sight.
There are several reasons for this:

• A large number of container ships are waiting dropping their shipments in the USA due to overloaded ports (congestion)

• There is still a lack of empty containers

• The utilization of the existing equipment is high

• Many customers have shifted their freight after CNY in the hope of better rates.

• China produces at a very high capacity and the shipping companies' order books are full for weeks and months.

• In January only a third of the container ships were on time, we still have to reckon with enormous delays.

• The ships are so overloaded that there is now a worldwide loss rate of around 3,000 containers that have gone overboard within just under 3 months.

Furthermore, even with booked containers, surcharges are demanded retrospectively from shipping companies, which could not be taken into account in your and our calculation. Deliveries of consignments to the German seaports and the Western European ports are often only permitted a short time (a few days or hours) before the ship arrives, which also leads to additional costs that cannot be planned.

Air freight
It is still a fact that the volume of air freight is booming, especially when it comes to imports from China. In return, the backbone of air freight - passenger flights - is still reduced by around 90%. Air freight rates are constantly changing around the world and still at a high level. In particular, the legal requirements for COVID 19 controls in Hong Kong (quarantine of the flight crews) lead to the extremely tense situation for imports in Germany, even after Chinese New Year.

General
The ability to plan international shipments in sea, rail and air freight continues to be subject to many imponderables. The rate level is still very high, unstable and hardly predictable. Due to a lack of space and a lack of equipment for all modes of transport, deadlines can only be implemented with an extended time window. We therefore ask for your understanding for the current situation, which we cannot influence. Experience shows that we can often find a satisfactory solution for your transport task in conversation with you, so the following still applies: Please contact us as soon as possible.