Author: GPSM

Please note that Northern China (Xingang and Qingdao) and Eastern China (Shanghai and Ningbo) ports have been adversely affected by heavy fog resulting in a large number of vessels being delayed in berthing and discharging/loading at these ports.

It is expected that some vessels may arrive in Australia later than planned per original sailing schedules as a result of the delays in China.
It I also possible that some vessels may not make their connections at the transhipment ports of Hong Kong, Singapore and Port Klang.

Our Customer Service Team will keep you updated on departure and arrival dates via Communicater messaging as usual.

Further to our earlier Newsflashes/Newsletters on rates applicable from Far East Asia to Australia, we are pleased to advised that our main carrier (COSCO) has extended their current rate levels until 31/12/16 without any increases. Some other lines have made some adjustments to rates for December shipments but most are minimal.

There is however talk of a further General Rate Increase being applied from 1^st January 2017, this will be the last “money grab” by lines prior to Chinese New Year, and while we do not believe the GRI will be implemented at the advertised level of USD 500.00/20ft and USD 1000.00/40ft, there is the possibility of a mitigated increase being applied.

All vessels are departing at maximum capacity at present and this is expected to continue into the New Year as China factories try to move all possible cargo prior to the CNY close down. We expect lines will use this to their advantage during this period.

We shall keep you updated on developments as we approach the Xmas/New Year period, any rate adjustments that were made by lines for December shipment have all been updated to the GPSM rate module on our website.

There has been a builds up of traffic transiting Singapore and Port Klang to all Australian ports over the past four (4) weeks.

Higher than anticipated volumes from Far East Asia, South East Asia, Europe and USA in the November peak period have led to a large backlog of containers sitting in the transhipment ports awaiting connection to Australian destinations.

All lines are currently experiencing delays and roll-overs to later vessels as the capacity to move the large volume of containers is simply not available on the Australian trade lane.

At worst, we are generally experiencing a delay of 7 days on our traffic, some other carriers (not supported by GPSM) are advising delays of up to 2-3 weeks in these transhipment ports.

The most affected port appears to be Adelaide, purely due to the lack of carriers that call at that port.

Rest assured that the GPSM team are working extremely hard in liaising with our preferred carriers to ensure earliest uplift of all transhipment containers.

Please be aware that there are possible delays expected at Singapore for transhipment cargo destined for Australia. We are giving you a “heads up” on the situation as of today, we have noted some traffic from China particularly to Fremantle and Adelaide are facing some delays in Singapore port on some shipping lines.

This situation has been created by peak season traffic volumes, and the collapse of Hanjin Line, where thousands of container slots and vessels have been lost to the trade. In the last week there has been a large volume of traffic from South East Asia, Far East Asia, Europe, UK and USA transiting Singapore port and the volumes involved have quickly created a backlog.

We would expect the delays to continue for the next 2-3 weeks and suggest that everyone takes this situation into account when planning new shipments.

GPSM will keep you updated on further developments as soon as further information is available.

It is the responsibility of all importers to ensure the goods you import do not contain any Asbestos, Australia policy is Zero Tolerance. We urge you to read the attached fact sheet carefully. It does contain information on your due diligence, and what measures the Australian Border Force (ABF) is taking with respect to testing of goods at time of arrival.

Measures the importer can take to ensure your goods are manufactured without any asbestos are also outlined in this fact sheet, such as

• Contractual obligations with your supplier specifying NIL Asbestos content
• Testing for asbestos content prior to shipping goods to Australia by accredited authorities (further details found in fact sheet)
• Regular risk assessment to determine what raw materials are used, or where they are sourced from, and identifying and therefore minimising any asbestos risk activities at point of manufacture

For all future customs entries we prepare we will not be able to lodge them without a declaration from your supplier stating that the shipment does not contain any asbestos. Without this we are unable to lodge your entry as goods will be deemed to contain asbestos, and the shipment will be held and sent for testing. All costs incurred in the re direction of container to an approved customs depot, testing, storage, and demurrage for late return of container will be the responsibility of the importer.
We need you to confirm that you have read the attached fact sheet as the ABF taking the matter of managing the risk of goods possibly containing Asbestos extremely seriously, and we require you to also take time to read this and be fully informed on what your obligations are as the importer, the penalties attract fines of up to $900,000 and prosecution under both the Customs Act & Crimes Act.

Please also be aware we are having shipments held now and sent for testing.

We would like to remind all shippers that Chinese National Holidays commence October 1st until 7th October. We urge you to ensure all documentation for any shipment arriving around this time have been received or dispatched by your suppliers to avoid unnecessary storage costs.

The market from Far East Asia has been extremely volatile of late, rates have been at extremely low levels for most of 2015/2016, despite small increases and reductions over this period, including increases from 1st September, 2016. The driving factor on rates throughout this period has been availability of space of the trade, offering far too many vessels and excess capacity.

In recent months, one international line has been forced to refinance their business in order to survive and in the last 2 weeks, Hanjin Line, the Korean based global carrier (7th largest in the world) has announced bankruptcy. The line is now in the hands of Administrators and many vessels are tied up off international ports or in some cases, under arrest for non-payment of port and associated charges.

GPSM were alerted to their financial situation some 6 weeks ago, there were rumours in the trade that Hanjin were having financial difficulties, so we ceased any support of them immediately, and we are happy to say that we have had no containers tied up on any Hanjin vessel. Many of the LCL consolidators continued their support of Hanjin and have numerous containers detained at present. Most of the slot-charterers on the Hanjin vessels have also managed to obtain release of most of their containers by guaranteeing payment to the various port operators.

The results of the bankruptcy will be an issue for many importers/exporters while the Administrators try and resolve the payments due to various global ports, many traders will have stock delayed for quite some time. The more important situation moving forward is that the Australian trade will lose a large space capacity, it is reported that Hanjin were operating 13 vessels on our trade with capacity of approximately 65,000 container slots.

It will take quite some time to replace this capacity, one carrier has been reported as being interested in taking over the Hanjin vessels but that could take months before the vessels are available and placed into service.

We have been advised to brace for increased freight rates, the demand will be extremely high through the traditional “peak” season of October through December. Already we are seeing notices from lines that rates will increase by USD 500.00/20ft and USD 1,000.00/40ft. Fortunately GPSM have some very close associations with some of the carriers and while we can see rates are expected to increase, we believe that we will be able to negotiate far better rate levels for our clients on the major carriers.

We are not trying to alarm anyone, just reporting the facts as we know them today, so we would suggest that you be prepared for cost increases, something we have not had to consider in any great amount over the past couple of years.

GPSM will naturally keep you updated with latest developments as soon as possible.

Are you importing from, USA, Japan or Korea? Just a reminder that your supplier provide you with a Signed Certificate of Origin to prevent delays at time of import and having to unnecessarily having to pay import duty, and then claim a refund.

Please refer to the formats attached below which you should provide your supplier with today.

As advised by our industry body, CBFCA, the following article has been written by Sohee Kim & Kyunghee Park for Bloomberg and is forwarded for your attention.

“As reported in Bloomberg today Hanjin Shipping Co. will apply for court receivership after lenders decided to halt all support to South Korea’s biggest container shipping line.

The Hanjin board decided unanimously on the move at a meeting in Seoul Wednesday and will file for receivership this afternoon, a spokesman said. The restructuring proposals submitted by Hanjin Shipping weren’t enough to address a cash shortage, main lender Korea Development Bank said Tuesday, dealing a blow to the revival efforts by a firm that’s been trying to reschedule debt under a voluntary creditor-led program since May.

Hanjin is among shipping lines grappling with a slump in global trade since the 2008 financial crisis and the slowest pace of economic growth in China in a quarter century. The industry worldwide has been forced to sell assets, cut jobs and idle some operations to bolster finances as the slowdown coupled with overcapacity eroded freight rates.”

In other places such as Canada, service providers in rail and road, for example CN Rail, has put a 24 hour “pause period” on all Hanjin containers and is waiting for further information from Hanjin. The CBFCA is aware that containers that are on the train are being moved but Hanjin containers not on trains are not being loaded to rail. In addition, in terminals, Hanjin containers are not being released during the “pause period”.

It is not improbable that such actions could occur within Australia, and the CBFCA recommends members review consignment issues in Hanjin carriage and inform clients of issues which have arisen in other places and could arise in Australia.

GPSM will continue to monitor the situation and advise any updates as received. We are currently checking all shipments that are on the water and booked to move to Australia to check that none of our routed containers are on Hanjin vessels, they may have been booked on anther shipping line but due to the consortiums operating from Far East and South East Asia, carriers do slot charter on other lines vessels as required.

Under the Biosecurity Act 2015, there have been changes made to the Packing Declaration, in particular to Q.1. whereby Department of Agriculture & Water Resources (DAWR) has removed the “Prohibited Packaging Material Statement” and replaced it with the “Unacceptable Packaging Material Statement”.

DAWR will continue to accept the Prohibited Statement up till 16 June 2017, new forms are attached, and we recommend you inform your suppliers / packers of the change to ensure they comply with the new Biosecurity requirements.