Shipex

30 March 2021

Dear customer

The Suez Canal is finally free after salvage company Boskalis succeeded in refloating vessel ‘Ever Given’. Traffic in the Suez Canal resumes after the vessel was towed to the Great Biter Lake where it will undergo safety checks.
The blockage created a build-up of almost 400 vessels at both entrances of the Suez Canal, and several sources indicate that it will take a few days to one week to clear the backlog.

All shipping lines have warned for heavy delays and a disruption of the operational situation in Europe due to the blockage of the Suez Canal. Please note that schedule reliability was already low during the last weeks due to the current lack of capacity in the market and congestion in ports worldwide (we refer to earlier communication).

Sailing schedules now have to be reviewed, but most probably loadings scheduled for weeks 14, 15 and 16 will have a delay of approximately 2 weeks with regard to the time of arrival in the European ports. Moreover port congestion will get worse as a lot of vessels are expected to arrive together and cause further delays.

In the current context it’s clear we may expect a lot of last minute changes.
• In an advisory to clients yesterday evening HAPAG LLOYD stated that they “currently do not know the exact ETA of our affected vessels” and they will no more deviate vessels via Cape of Good Hope.
• Carrier CMA CGM implements a temporary stop of container releases on the vessels delayed as per the hereunder list (see below, page2)
• We would like to remind you that shipping line MSC has suspended all bookings for Eastbound shipments (Middle East & Red Sea, Far East, Australia, New Zealand, East Africa, Indian Ocean, India & Pakistan), with a few exceptions.

We will revert with a new update in the next days, once new sailing schedules are available.
CMA CGM – temporary stop of container releases for vessels below:

CMA CGM temporary hold

Please note that we do the utmost to find solutions for your company and try to minimize the impact, nevertheless Shipex – as freight forwarder – cannot absorb unexpected additional costs that may arise of any delays.