Tag: Ports

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Health

Cruise Line Threatens to Skip Florida Ports Over Proof-of-Vaccination Ban

Cruise Line Threatens to Skip Florida Ports Over Proof-of-Vaccination Ban

Norwegian Cruise Line threatens to keep its ships out of Florida ports after the state enacted laws prohibiting companies from requesting proof of Covid-19 vaccination in exchange for services.

The company, which plans to launch its first cruises to the Caribbean and Europe in the summer and fall, offers limited capacity trips and requires all guests and crew to be vaccinated for bookings by at least the end of October.

During a quarterly earnings call Thursday, Frank Del Rio, managing director of Norwegian Cruise Line, said the issue had been discussed with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican. Mr Del Rio said if the cruise line had to skip the ports of Florida, it could operate from other states or the Caribbean.

“We definitely hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Mr Del Rio. “Everyone wants to operate from Florida. It’s a very lucrative market. “

The conflict between Norwegian Cruise Line and Florida is one of the many that is likely to surface when it comes to how states and companies go about whether or not proof of vaccination is required. While some states are not yet taking a position on companies that require vaccines, others are already using such protocols.

At many New York events, such as Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games, state health and safety guidelines require fans to provide a vaccination certificate or negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of attending.

“We hope this has not become legal or political football,” said Del Rio on the conference call.

Norwegian Cruise Line is headquartered in Florida, along with Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corporation. According to an economic analysis prepared for the Cruise Lines International Association last year, around 60 percent of all US cruise ships in 2019 came from ports in Florida.

In a business update on Thursday, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that bookings for the first half of 2022 were seeing “robust future demand” that was “well ahead” of 2019 bookings. By the end of the first quarter of 2021, the company announced a pre-sale of $ 1.3 billion in tickets.

Florida law not only prohibits companies from providing evidence of vaccination, but also prevents state and local authorities from closing personal learning companies or schools unless there is a hurricane emergency.

Updated

May 8, 2021, 2:21 p.m. ET

“I have refused to take the same approach as other lockdown governors,” DeSantis said in a statement on Monday when he signed the bill. “Florida protects your personal choice about vaccinations and no company or government agency can deny you services based on your choice.”

His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday and Norwegian Cruise Line could not be reached for comment.

“We hope everyone is pushing in the same direction, which means we want to safely resume the cruise, especially at the beginning,” said Del Rio on the call for winners. “In six months or a year, things could be different.”

The latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allow cruise lines to conduct “simulated voyages” with volunteer passengers to see how cruise lines can safely resume operations with measures such as testing and potential quarantines.

The CDC requires cruise ships to complete test runs before they can be cleared for sailing with passengers this summer.

“It is not possible for cruises to be an activity without risk for the spread of Covid-19,” the CDC said this week. “While cruises always pose some risk to the transmission of Covid-19, CDC is committed to ensuring that cruise ship passenger operations are carried out in a way that protects crew, passengers and port personnel.”

The latest guidelines recommend but do not require that cruise ship travelers and crew members receive a vaccine when it is available to them.

Speaking at this week’s call for a prize, Mr. Del Rio said Norwegian Cruise Line had submitted a proposal to the CDC requiring vaccine detection from all crew members and passengers.

It’s unclear how much business Norwegian Cruise Line could lose by avoiding Florida ports. Of the dozen of ports listed on its website, Norwegian Cruise Line has Florida ports in Tampa, Miami, and Key West.

Mr Del Rio said “pent-up demand” helped fill bookings quickly.

“I believe it’s the # 1 destination for Americans in the Caribbean,” said Del Rio. “Who knows? This ship could prove so profitable there that it will never return to US waters.”

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Business

Retailers pay extra to fly bikes to scorching tubs from China as backup at U.S. ports delays deliveries

Retailers pay more to fly bikes to hot tubs from China as backup at U.S. ports delays deliveries

Containers are seen on a shipping dock as the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in the port of Los Angeles, California on April 16, 2020.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

A ship with 197 containers of peloton bikes and goods circled at anchor off the port of Los Angeles just before Christmas and entered a hold pattern on December 22nd until it was allowed to dock on January 2nd, according to global shipping data company MarineTraffic.

“The ship and Peloton’s expected delivery time lost 12 days while their product was almost swimming distance from shore,” said Import Genius trade data analyst William George. “This is a crazy example of the problem Peloton and other US importers are facing.”

The combination of record container volumes in the port of Los Angeles – the most heavily frequented container port in the western hemisphere due to its proximity to Asia – and delays caused by Covid-19 is slowing down imports into the USA, according to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Around 800 of the 15,000 members were due to Covid-19 unemployed – they either recovered from the virus or otherwise quarantined at home.

Record congestion in ports around the world has led some companies to abandon ocean shipping for air freight in order to get popular or seasonal items to shelves faster. This not only saves valuable time, but also money. According to Freightos, the international online freight market, airfares are still more expensive than shipping via ocean freight, but they have been falling in recent months.

400% more

“While air freight was volatile in the first few months of Covid, rising 400% between February and April 2020, ocean freight has become a bottleneck in global supply chains, making air freight a more profitable option in some cases.” “stated Eytan Buchman, CMO of Freightos.

Some of the congestion in U.S. ports is expected to decrease as more longshore workers are vaccinated against the coronavirus, which began Feb. 12. Only 5% of longshore workers have had vaccinations to date, said Gene Seroka, general manager of the Port of Los Angeles. He said the port is advocating “all levels of government” to vaccinate longshore workers to reduce congestion in the ports.

CH Robinson air freight

Source: CH Robinson

Peloton, who refused to comment on the article, referred CNBC to the company’s quarterly letter to shareholders published last month. The company said its profit margins for the last three months of the year were squeezed by additional shipping costs of $ 100 million during the critical holiday season.

“The global increase in shipping traffic has resulted in significant delays in all types of goods arriving in US ports, including Peloton products,” said Josh Foley, CEO of Peloton, in a February 4 letter to members. “These unpredictable delays have resulted in painful delivery dates for many people as Peloton bikes, treads and accessories have been kept in port for more than five times longer than usual.”

The Peloton shipment is just one example of the variety of goods held up in US ports.

Waiting for dock

According to MarineTraffic, 30 container ships were anchored in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Monday. More than 30 container ships are expected to arrive at the port of LA and more than 27 are expected to dock in the port of Long Beach in late March. Among the anchored ships waiting to be unloaded in the port of Los Angeles is the APL Charleston, which carried the late peloton deliveries in January. It arrived back loaded with Chinese exports on February 18.

The delays in December weren’t unusual, said Captain Adil Ashiq, MarineTraffic’s chief executive officer for the U.S. West Region.

CH Robinson air freight

Source: CH Robinson

“It is a reality that many ships, supply chain and logistics service providers are currently facing in the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach,” he said in an interview. Port congestion data shows that the average time a container ship was anchored outside the dock last week was just over 7.5 days before it could travel inland, Ashiq said. “Now that the APL Charleston is at anchor again, it may face similar circumstances as it did on its previous port visit in December, but of course this is a cruise so anything can happen.”

The bottleneck in the ports has increased the cost of shipping, making air freight, which is usually considerably more expensive, looks like a relative bargain – especially considering the time savings. Airship prices have fallen dramatically in recent months.

A 250-kilogram air freight with a full container from China to the US has fallen in price from about 60% of the cost of a full container to only about 36%, he said.

“In other words, for the right kind of cargo, and certainly the right value, air is becoming a more compelling option, both with capacity and with far shorter transit times,” said Eytan Buchman, CMO of the international online freight market, Freightos.

Hot tubs and bikes

Brian Bourke, chief growth officer at Seko Logistics, said the time savings in product arrival justify the cost to their customers who have to meet consumer demand.

“If you’re looking to ship a hot tub across the ocean from Shanghai to New York, shipping a lighter hot tub will cost around $ 1,000, but it takes at least 35 to 45 days,” he said in an interview. That doesn’t include an extra 7-14 days if you have to book in advance, he said. Shipping air freight costs anywhere from $ 2,000 to $ 3,000, depending on its weight.

“But you only need three to four days to get your hot tub,” he said. “So if you pay two or three times, you save four to seven weeks now. In the end, the math makes sense for certain senders right now.”

Kim Peterson, transportation manager for Canyon Bicycles USA, said they ship most of their inventor by water, but their most popular bikes are being shipped via air to meet growing demand.

“Air is faster and we have to meet customer demand,” he said. “I could pay an additional $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 to get my product in an (ocean) container at the head of the line in China, but that doesn’t matter because the cargo is in LA’s congestion . “

60 to 75 days

Before the pandemic, shipping took 20 to 30 days, he said. Now it’s about 60 to 75 days while air freight takes three to five days, Peterson said. “It’s a big difference. We are currently behind in Asia,” he said. “We can’t wait. That would have an impact on sales.”

Shawn Richard, vice president of global air freight in New York at Seko Logistics, tells CNBC that they don’t expect the peak load to end anytime soon.

“We regularly fly 65-inch TVs from China to the US,” said Richard. “We saw air freight up 40% in December. Large items like hot tubs were also transported. Our ocean freight teams are now selling air freight.”

Richard says that large recreational items like ping pong tables and exercise equipment like treadmills are usually shipped by sea because of the cost. Now they are moving by air due to an increase in demand. In the Covid-19 pandemic, people are locked inside but are looking for ways to stay fit and entertaining outside.

“Barbecues and related merchandise like lawn / patio furniture, inflatable pools, filtering devices, and anything that could be used to improve safety at home instead of family vacations are now moving by air,” he said.

The lack of reliability in retail has pushed the functionality of the logistics and supply chains to their limits. John Foley, CEO of Peloton, recently told CNBC that the company would be spending an additional $ 100 million on expediting shipping to reduce delivery delays.

“We are seeing the industries in need of accelerated shipping being blown against the rush and waiting by the sea,” said Matt Castle, vice president, air cargo products and services, CH Robinson. Recreational vehicles and parts that used to be shipped by sea have shifted to air freight, he said. “One of the things I never thought air would move is vacuum cleaners. It’s a hot topic now with so many people at home.”

Seasonal deliveries

Castle said the drive to the air is a combination of factors: companies with a narrow seasonal window to sell products and production-based industries looking to re-establish a rhythm and catch up on inventory.

“Ocean congestion is increasing to meet orders and drive demand for air freight,” said Castle.

Stephen Svajian, CEO and co-founder of Anova Culinary, which sells its precision combi ovens and cookers to COSCO, Target and Amazon, said they are increasing their air freight orders in response to increasing demand for the “home dining experience”. “

“We decide which products to air freight based on the set retail date and consumer expectations. We don’t want to be sold out or fulfill orders,” said Svajian. “This year there is more pressure to use air due to delays at sea.”

This logistical strategy of getting some products in the air isn’t unique to the US. Castle said they are also seeing companies in Europe making the switch. “This market is very strong. There is a lack of container capacity everywhere.”

Ag exported

Air is also becoming an option for US exporters struggling to get their products overseas as carriers refuse US Ag exports to return empty containers. They make far fewer shipping exports from the US to China – $ 744 per container versus $ 4,922 for Chinese exports to the US. The time and money saved when empty containers do not have to be loaded, unloaded and cleaned offsets the lost money on the way back to Asia.

It also costs US farmers who are struggling to ship their goods overseas. Their access to international markets “is being severely undermined by the unprecedented dysfunction and cost of maritime transportation services,” said Peter Friedman, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.

Richard of Seko Logistics said spices and perishable goods like lobster were shipped to China by air back in October.

There doesn’t seem to be a quick fix to unblock US ports, leaving companies like Canyon with few options.

“In the cycling world, when the sun comes out, people want to ride bikes,” said Peterson of Canyon. “Demand is still high. It’s pretty obvious that we need to keep going and ventilate.”

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Business

Brexit Customs Checks Make a Quiet Debut at U.Okay. Ports

Brexit Customs Checks Make a Quiet Debut at U.K. Ports

LONDON – A new era began without a fuss on Friday morning at the ports and terminals on Britain’s south east coast. Ferries and trains transporting goods from Dover and Folkestone to France ran on time, and the drivers snaked their trucks unloaded into the port.

Apparently little has changed on January 1st, the country’s first day outside the internal market and customs union of the European Union. It was a public holiday, after all, and there wasn’t much to do.

For the first time in over 25 years, goods moving between the UK and the European Union can no longer move freely, and goods entering the block will be subject to customs controls.

A trade agreement signed in the UK in the early hours of December 31st, less than 24 hours before it came into force, means that the country and the European Union will trade goods without tariffs. However, businesses will continue to face significant changes that they had to prepare for even during the lockdowns, closings, and other social restrictions imposed by the government to contain a growing pandemic.

The changes are sure to bring “bumpy moments,” a senior cabinet minister predicted this week. The government estimates that new customs papers alone will cost British companies £ 7 billion (about $ 9.6 billion) a year.

The UK has at least 150,000 exporters who, according to the country’s tax authority, have never shipped their goods beyond the block and are therefore required to file customs declarations for the first time. Border controls within the European Union were abolished in 1993.

This is a change that will be felt immediately in the UK ports, particularly the port of Dover and the Eurotunnel endpoint at Folkestone, which connect the country to France. But on Friday, New Year’s Day, the trains and ferries are said to have run smoothly. Eurotunnel reported that 200 trucks had already used their shuttle train by 8 a.m.

“It seems pretty quiet,” Elizabeth De Jong, the political director of Logistics UK, a trade group, told Sky News on Friday morning.

However, she added that companies are now facing “a new, different language of customs regulations” that need to be understood. She described the next few weeks as a live test, as companies have to ensure that they have the correct documentation for themselves and the goods on board, and traffic into the region has to be controlled.

In the most extreme circumstances, or according to the government, in the worst case, between 40 and 70 percent of trucks going into the European Union may not be ready for the new border controls. This would slow the flow of goods and could result in lines of up to 7,000 trucks driving to the border and delays of up to two days, according to a government report.

Britain has only recently removed a huge backlog of trucks from the border. On late December 20, the French government suddenly closed its border for 48 hours to stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus from England. Thousands of trucks and their drivers were stranded for days. Once the border reopened, they had to show a negative coronavirus test before they could enter France.

The delays in the normally fast-paced port have also raised concerns about the UK’s supply of fresh food, much of which is imported from Europe in winter. A fruit supplier urgently arranged for goods to be flown into the country. British fish and shellfish exporters had to mingle to ship their goods to France unaccompanied by drivers before spoiling them.

The spectacle heightened concerns about trading after December 31, the end of the Brexit transition period. Although goods are already moving more slowly because each driver must first take a negative coronavirus test, which can take around 40 minutes to produce results, trucks are unlikely to see thousands of trucks entering France due to the quieter holiday season Wait friday.

“We would expect the persistent disruption to worsen in the first two weeks as freight demand increases,” the government report said. This could take about three months.

Goods entering the European Union from England, Scotland or Wales now require customs controls, including security declarations, and truck drivers need an entry permit for Kent, the county of Dover and Folkestone to confirm they have the necessary documents .

Truck drivers who drive in the other direction initially have to make fewer demands. The UK government has relaxed the rules for goods coming into the country from the European Union for six months.

Categories
World News

A Freight Site visitors Logjam Eases at Britain’s Ports

A Freight Traffic Logjam Eases at Britain's Ports

On Thursday, trucks boarded ferries in Dover to cross the English Channel for the first time in four days. This was a step towards ending a thousand traffic jams that piled up at the border after France banned crossings from the UK to limit the spread of a coronavirus variant.

The sea, rail and air routes had reopened more than 24 hours earlier after London agreed to run virus tests on drivers. However, the backlog didn’t begin to clear until Thursday after British authorities set up a screening and cleared the healthy for travel.

Members of the British military were dispatched to test the thousands of drivers.

Due to the size of the task, the movement remained slow on Thursday morning. It could take days for the traffic jam to clear completely, which means that many drivers are unlikely to come home on Christmas Day.

Hordes of drivers have been stranded after the border’s sudden closure, leaving them with no more space and barely any access to food or public facilities. Many had to sleep in their rigs for several nights, and even with the track open, trouble was felt on Thursday when some truckers spelled the word “HELP” with traffic cones, according to a picture in The Guardian.

“It’s like a horror movie,” said Ravinder Singh, executive director of Khalsa Aid, which distributes meals to drivers stuck on the highway. “It’s a prison for them: there is nowhere to go,” he added.

About 6,000 trucks got stuck in Dover and approaching the port on Thursday, of which 4,000 were parked at a disused airport that has been converted into a stopping area, the BBC reported.

The government in Kent, the county of which Dover is a part, has been working with aid organizations to provide food and water for drivers. Supermarkets and local businesses in south east England have also made donations, council officials said, adding that more portable toilets have also been installed along the motorway.

Roger Gough, chairman of Kent Council, said in a statement that he hoped the situation would steadily improve.

“However, I have deep condolences for those who are late for Christmas with their families,” said Gough.

In other developments around the world:

  • Austria The ski slopes were allowed to be opened on Thursday, but all skiers aged 14 and over had to wear respirators in public areas and when driving in gondolas. Hotels, restaurants and bars will remain closed. From Thursday, Austria will loosen the lockdown for the Christmas holidays, lift the night curfew and allow up to 10 people from 10 different households to meet. On Saturday, the restrictions will be tightened again until mid-January. The country of 8.8 million people recorded 2,131 new cases of infection on Thursday.

  • China will suspend direct flights to and from the UK indefinitely due to concerns about the infectious variant that is widespread there, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. China has banned non-resident travelers from Belgium, the UK, France, India and the Philippines since November, but kept its borders open to Chinese nationals, including students studying in those countries.

  • Prime Minister Ana Brnabic of Serbia Reuters reported that he received the country’s first Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday, starting a mass vaccination campaign. Around 4,875 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine were flown in on Tuesday. This made Serbia the first Balkan nation to receive shots. Ms. Brnabic said the country is also awaiting shipments of China’s Sinopharm and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines, and President Aleksandar Vucic will most likely receive the Sinopharm vaccine. “We both agreed that the two of us would be shooting from different producers,” she told reporters.

  • European Union The member states should start vaccinations on Sunday. in the France, where the The National Health Agency approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. The authorities have ordered about 200 million cans and have outlined a three-phase vaccination strategy, starting with retirement homes and hospitals. Spain The first Covid-19 vaccination is due to take place on Sunday in a nursing home in downtown Guadalajara.

Melissa Eddy, Tiffany May, Raphael Minder, Constant Méheut and Eshe Nelson contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Business

Britain’s Ports Are Jammed, and Brexit Is Round Nook

Britain’s Ports Are Jammed, and Brexit Is Around Corner

“It still works by itself,” said Alex Veitch, general manager of public order for Logistics UK, a trading group.

The problem in the UK was exacerbated by a large shipment of medical masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment ordered for the National Health Service and temporarily stored in Felixstowe. At the end of November, the port operator announced that it was working with the government to free the mountain of shipping containers, some of which had been moved to former airfields. The port had also hired staff and extended its opening hours to remove the congestion.

Felixstowe had filed complaints prior to the pandemic. According to IHS Markit, it is one of the least efficient container ports in the world. It is struggling to cope with growing international trade and larger ships with more containers. Moving a container onto or from a ship in Felixstowe takes twice as long as some of China’s busiest ports, IHS Markit data shows.

With Felixstowe and other deep-sea ports mostly handling trade from Asia, these delays are not the same as in the New Year when the UK breaks away from its largest trading partner.

From January 1st, the UK’s trade relations with the European Union will change, introducing customs controls and possibly tariffs. While a trade deal is still being negotiated, the border processes will change regardless. For the first time, hundreds of thousands of businesses will have to meet customs controls and other new trade requirements.

The government has warned companies to prepare, but trade groups say some companies are too busy with the aftermath of the pandemic. Mr Ward said importers and exporters are less prepared, even though warehouses and transport companies have done what they can.

The crux of the matter is likely to be on the south coast, in Dover or Folkestone, the busiest places for goods to be transported between Great Britain and the European Union, either with trucks, which are transported by ferries across the English Channel, or with trains through the Channel Tunnel.