Coronavirus Logistics Update 14 (COVID-19)

This is AJF’s continuing coverage of how the Coronavirus is impacting the logistics sector from ocean freight to road haulage within the UK and further afield. Generally in the UK the government has released a rather confusing update to what the public can now do. The “Stay at Home” message has been replaced in England with a “Stay Alert” message. The general public is allowed to do more exercise and travel further afield in order to do it. Garden centres and golf clubs have been allowed to reopen if the follow social distancing rules.Additionally much to quite a few people surprise they government said people can return to work from Monday. However while the death rate is gradually falling now, the number of new cases being reported has been increasing again. Time will show if having more people moving about and interacting will result in a new spike in cases and deaths resulting in the lock down being reintroduced. Scotland and Wales have refused to adopt the new message and have not changed their guidance to the general public yet.

Within the logistics industry, the warnings of a storage shortfall for incoming cargoes in the UK has not yet happened, with warehousing and general open storage still available. Ocean freight beginning to generally settle down. Few new blank sailings have been announced by the shipping lines as they get to grips with the virus and its impact on the supply chain. Forwarders are still seeing bookings being cancelled in some sectors as importers expect a general decline in demand for goods over the coming months and do not want to have lots of unsold stock sitting in warehousing.  The Cass Freight Index which has been reporting on domestic movements in North America since 1995 has published its April figures which has shown how  severe the impact of the coronavirus has been. The index has shown shipments in North America dropped over 20%, one of the steepest recorded.  However with restrictions being lifted it is expected the May figure not to be as severe and the June figure be much closer to normal.

Once again in the airfreight sector it is China and the still increasing demands for PPE equipment, has resulted in large backlogs in cargo at China’s Shanghai Pudong Airport. Due to handling restrictions and when trucks can arrive at the airport cargo has been missing it’s booked flight, which then means it has to be stored for the next available flight and this then adds further to the congestion. Apparently foreign operators of flights are only allowed to fly one route in to and out of China no matter where the origin was. Even Chinese airlines are having route restrictions imposed on them. It is likely this situation is going to continue at least for the next two weeks.  Demand for airfreight in April out of China is clearly shown with over 1500 cargo flights in this period which amounts to a  staggering increase of over 50% year on year. Shipments of PPE equipment are still showing no signs of declining with demand still very high for these products in most countries.

If you have any freight shipments either import or export from the UK, AJF is ready to handle it from LCL, full container shipments and airfreight to all areas of the world.