Shipex

SUEZ CANAL INCIDENT - UPDATE 4

31th of March 2021

Dear customer

During the last days carriers have been working on an adjustment of their services and sailing schedules after the incident at the Suez Canal.
We would like to reiterate that all information provided by shipping lines is subject to last minute changes !

• Biggest shipping line MAERSK is “expecting a significant loss in capacity over multiple weeks” and they have “decided to temporarily cease short term bookings placed via Spot as well as short term contracts” for several trades: export out of Asia and export from Europe to the Middle East, Indian Sub-Continent, Asia and Oceania. Maersk is referring to a loss of capacity of 20-30 percent over multiple weeks and severe port congestion. They advise “to prioritise the most urgent goods to be shipped first”.

• In an advisory to clients yesterday evening HAPAG LLOYD is informing her customers that the “exact ETA of our affected vessels is still under evaluation”, although they informally confirm a delay of 1 to 2 weeks. Together with their partners of The Alliance (ONE, Yang Ming and Hyundai) they have also 4 vessels sailing eastbound and 2 vessels sailing westbound via the Cape of Good Hope, with a longer transit time than initially scheduled.

• CMA CGM indicates that they will reconfirm the existing bookings on the respective vessels, but with new dates.
o The load planning must therefore be adjusted, in accordance with the new closing date and shipment date (ETS);
o however note that carrier CMA does not exclude that further adjustments can follow due to the congestion in the various European ports that will probably reach its peak in the days to come.

• Carrier MSC says that they are “slowly getting more visibility on the scheduling of the sailings towards the impacted area’s “.
o They will try to process pending bookings asap on vessels with the nearest shipment date (ETS) as initially requested;
o new bookings can be initiated based on below table with new sailing schedules (last update dd 31 March 12h).

MSC is warning for a “heavy disruption in the current container flow” which will worsen the container equipment availability. Therefore the carrier took several measures, as the release of empty containers closer to the actual ETS. But most important: “release time will depend at all times on actual equipment situation and availability”. Thus it might happen that loadings will have to be postponed or cancelled due to last minute equipment problems.

MSC - revised sailing schedule:

MSC SUEZ

For more information about your shipments, please contact your account manager.

Shipex team