Author: GPSM

Import Ocean Rates from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan:

It was great to see some rate relief at long last from above countries into Australia, some substantial rate reductions have been applied by shipping lines effective from 1st December, 2024. We are hopeful that trend will continue but as has been the case in recent years, there may be a final rate spike to come prior to Chinese New Year which this year falls earlier than normal in late January, 2025.

All the new rates have been added to GPSM rates module and we will naturally keep everyone further updated as soon as we have any further rate news.

Container Terminals Announce Increased costs:

The container terminal operators in Australia, D P World, Patrick, and VICT have announced numerous charges increase from 1st January, 2025.

Below is commentary that DP World and other industry sources issued when advising of the increased costs, seen as justification for the terminals to go ahead despite many Australia companies already being in financial hardship.

Further details on the terminals Investment Program and cost increases are stated below:

• 7% increase in Workforce costs under Bargaining agreement from February 2025
• 6 % + increases across Electricity and Security costs in 2025
• 21 % + increases across Insurance costs in 2025
• CPI % + increases across Property and Property related and maintenance costs
• $ 900 M Capex program over the next 3 year focusing on productivity improvements for landside operators to deliver a higher level of service and efficiency through faster turn time for rail and road.

 

Patrick’s:

• Terminal Access Charges (Imports): +9.5%
• Terminal Access Charges (Exports): +3.5%
• VBS and ancillary fees: Increase of 0%-7.77%

 

DP World:

• Terminal Access Charges: +10%
• Vehicle Booking Service and ancillary fees: Increase of 10%-25%

 

VICT:

• Terminal Access Charges: +4.18%
• VBS and ancillary fees: Increase of 0%-20%

 

GPSM are working through all the cost increases, they not only relate to access and infrastructure fees, there are also steep increases in many fees that trucking companies pay for bulk load out runs, empty container returns to port terminals, annual subscriptions to the various booking systems, energy surcharges and other incidental costs that GPSM absorb.

GPSM costs from 1st January 2025 will increase in line with the above announcements, all charges will be updated in or rates module and kindly note that the costs vary from port to port.

 

LCL Container Depots Booking Fees:

LCL Unpack Depots have announced they will increase the LCL booking fees to $ 45.00 per shipment effective from 1st January 2025. We regret we will need to pass on these out of pocket cost increases to all clients.

 

Port Charges/Documentation Fees:

Numerous lines have announced they will be increasing Australian Port Charges from 1st January 2025, increases vary up to $ 15.00/container depending on the line involved.

Shipping Line Documentation Fees are also due to increase from many lines from 1st January, 2025, the costs vary a little from line to line but most lines will now charge + $ 150.00 for this fee.

 

New Zealand

The same situation exists in New Zealand with shipping line documentation fee increasing to + NZD150 per bill of lading.

 

Disruptions to Auckland Rail

KiwiRail regarding their announced rail closure in Auckland over the upcoming Summer period. The closure will be in place from the 27th December 2024 to the 27th January 2025, and KiwiRail will be moving import / export containers between Tauranga and Auckland Metroport via a mixture of rail and road services.

KiwiRail are not applying any additional charges for this road-bridging service, however we believe that a backlog is likely to occur over this time due to the volumes between these ports, resulting in delays on containers and ongoing congestion into February.

Montreal & Vancouver Port Dispute

An ongoing dispute by port workers and terminal operators in Montreal and Vancouver has resulted in the union voting to reject substantial pay offer of more than 20% to be implemented over 6 years retrospective to early 2024.

The Maritime Employers Association (MEA) noted that would mean the average compensation for dockers would equate to more than C$200,000 (AUD 234,300) a year, and would also apply to the current pension plan and benefits offered to port of Montreal workers.

Operations have been halted at Montreal & Vancouver since 31 October and now port operators have now declared a lockout of workers. Rail operators have now advised they will not accept bookings for containers moving into Montreal until further notice.

Vessel operators are now considering alternative options to avoid the dispute, while in breaking news, the Canadian Government has stepped in and directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order a resumption of all work and move talks to binding arbitration.

 

Australian Terminal Charges

The terminals operated by DP World and Patricks have announced the implementation of increased charges from 1st January 2025 at all their terminals across Australia.

As yet Hutchinson ports or VICT Melbourne have not made any announcement but are expected to follow suit.

We will advise all variations to current rates once costs are on hand and checked, the terminals are claiming they are spending huge amounts on infrastructure at all terminals and need to recoup those outgoings.

New North West Europe to Australia Service

MSC Lines have announced they are starting a new service to Australia from NW Continent ports of Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, London and Le Havre. Containers will tranship at Port Louis and the Australian port rotation will be Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle. MSC are quoting transit times as follows:

THE NEW LINK BETWEEN NORTHWEST CONTINENT AND AUSTRALIA

SOUTHBOUND	SYDNEY	MELBOURNE	ADELAIDE	FREMANTLE
ANTWERP	37 days	42 days	46 days	51 days
LONDON GATEWAY	36 days	40 days	44 days	50 days
ROTTERDAM	48 days	53 days	57 days	62 days
BREMERHAVEN	42 days	47 days	51 days	56 days
HAMBURG	43 days	48 days	52 days	58 days
LE HARVE	41 days	44 days	46 days	50 days

Above transit times are indicative only and subject to change without notice.

The above service is a replacement for the previous service that operated via Singapore to Australia and an addition to the direct service from NW Continent ports.

The Trump Presidency in USA

It is expected that the Trump administration will implement large tariffs on imports from China in USA when they power. At this time there is no indication of any expected changes to Australian goods entering USA nor any news on the future of the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and USA.

What is clear is that American importers are ramping up purchases from China prior to the new administration taking over, this may have some ramifications as it is expected many lines will add extra services and the increased volumes are likely to cause congestion at USA ports. This may have an effect on the container traffic to and from USA, GPSM will keep you fully informed of further developments.

New Direct Service announced to Fremantle:

MSC Line have just introduced a new weekly service from Shanghai to Fremantle. These are the only load and discharge ports involved at present.

Transit time is being quoted at 12 to 14 days on port to port basis, so in order to avoid the on-going delays in Singapore and Malaysia transhipment hubs, GPSM will be supporting this service for all our FCL Fremantle clients.

Authorised MUA stop work meeting at DP World Terminal Melbourne:

An authorised MUA (maritime Union Australia) stop work meeting will be held in DP World Melbourne Terminal from 9:30 am – 2:00 pm on Wednesday, 30th October 2024.

All terminal operations will cease during this period and the stoppage will have an effect on all deliveries planned for that day.

Our Transport Team will keep all affected clients fully updated on any delivery times changes necessary.

Transhipment Hub Delays:

The ports of Port Klang in Malaysia and Singapore are still experiencing congestion and transhipments to Australia continue to encounter delays in meeting connecting vessels.

The delays have built up over recent months following the Suez Canal closure, an unexpected increase in the bookings that lines received from April 2024 onwards, a general lack of empty equipment globally and several weather events in Asia that have delayed vessels departures on several routes.

We would suggest you factor in additional delay time in your planning for any shipment moving via these ports, at present we are seeing up to 2 weeks delay over Singapore and approximately 3 weeks delay over Port Klang. The services to Fremantle and Adelaide have been impacted the most over recent months.

 

Qantas and Western Sydney Airport sign Partnership deal:

The Qantas Group and Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI) have strengthened their strategic partnership, with Qantas Freight signing on as the airport’s first freight airline to operate at its 24-hour Cargo Precinct.

The precinct will increase Sydney’s air cargo capacity by around 33 per cent upon opening and provide dedicated access via the upgraded Northern Road and proximity to growing freight and logistics centres at Kemps Creek and the Aerotropolis.

Qantas will support the movement of a diverse range of goods as part of its cargo operation in the precinct, which will have an overall footprint of approximately 24,000 square metres, including about 14,000 square metres of warehousing. The hub will be capable of facilitating Qantas’ transformed freighter fleet of new and upgraded Airbus A321 and A330 aircraft.

Construction of the precinct – which will include up to 75,000 square metres of total warehousing and be capable of servicing eight wide-body aircraft at any one time – began earlier this year and remains on track for cargo operations to commence in late 2026.

Breaking News:

Further to our Newsflash on Wednesday this week advising of a strike at US ports, we have just received news form our USA agents that the port strike at East Coast and Gulf has been postponed.

Port workers will return to work on Friday morning (US time)

A new interim contract has been agreed on by the parties, it is valid until 15th January 2025 and we are hopeful that negotiations on a new contract from January can be resolved in the meantime.

Strike in USA closes down ports:

The ILA (International Longshoremen’s Association) and USMX ( US Maritime Alliance, representing employers at US East Coast and Gulf ports) have been negotiating a new contract for several months, talks reached a standstill late last week and the ILA threatened to strike from Tuesday (US Time). The strike encompasses around 45,000 ILS members across the various ports and will be the first East Coast port strike since 1977.

The scale of the strike and the resulting ripple effect will significantly disrupt cargo movement along the U.S. East Coast, U.S. Gulf, and across alternative shipping routes. Vessels schedules will be impacted, as some carriers may reroute to alternative ports while others will anchor offshore awaiting resolution.

The following ports have ceased operation already:

• Montreal and Toronto in Canada (cargo from both ports usually loads out of New York or Philadelphia ports for Australia/NZ).
• All East Coast and Gulf ports in USA.

Despite the high stakes, the Biden administration has indicated that the president does not plan to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows presidential intervention in labor disputes that create a national emergency. The Act allows 80 days cooling off period so the various parties can continue negotiations and requires all workers to return to their jobs.

This industrial action will lead to stranded vessels off the East Coast/Gulf area, and already today we have seen a couple of shipping lines issue notices that a Port Strike Congestion Surcharge will be introduced to all affected containers. The amounts being quoted today are around USD 1500.00/20ft container and USD 3000.00/40ft container with specialized equipment (Reefer, Open-Top, Flat-Racks) possibly attracting even higher costs.

LCL consolidations will also be affected, we have today seen a surcharge of USD 35.00 per cbm/1000kgs applied by consolidators from all USA origin points, effective immediately.

GPSM will keep all clients updated as soon as further information comes to hand.

Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) have received advice from the Minister for Home Affairs the Hon Tony Burke MP and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Senator the Hon Murray Watt confirming the prohibition of the importation of engineered stone as of 1 January 2025.

The 2024 Federal Budget provided $32.1 million to the Australian Border Force to enforce the import prohibition.

The Government will recommend proposed regulations to the Governor-General, in order to implement the prohibition prior to its commencement on 1 January 2025.

Further information can be found on link below

https://ministers.dewr.gov.au/burke/engineered-stone-importation-ban-start-january-1

DP World (Melbourne) – IT System Issues Causing Ongoing Delays and Disruptions to Road Operations:

Please see below the information provided by DP World Melbourne on Monday – regarding their IT system upgrade last Friday. At this stage todays delays are in excess of three hours (images below), these delays look to continue for some time.

These delays have a severe impact on traffic movement around the Ports precinct, which is further compromised by the ongoing roadworks. Our Operations team can be contacted if you need to further clarify how these delays may impact your expected delivery time.

Delays have continued today (Tuesday), our transport operations team are monitoring the situation and will keep affected clients advised on any revised delivery times.

“Hi Carriers There have ongoing and intermittent systems issues since the upgrade on Friday and this has impacted the road throughout the weekend and into today. At the moment until we can get the slot drops done for Tuesday and Wednesday, we don’t have any vision of what we can do as far as moving slots around. We will need all of today to re-organise so please be patient as we work through each of the requests we receive “

China National Holidays:

Just a reminder that China will shut down from 1st October until 7th October 2024 for Mid Autumn Festival and National Day public holidays, please ensure you ask all shippers to provide shipment documentation as soon as possible to avoid any delays and extra costs.

Ocean Freight Rates:

We are starting to see signs of some rate relief from China, Taiwan and Korea ports to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with some rate reductions being implemented from 15th September, 2024., hopefully this trend will continue into October/November.

The rates to West Coast ports are actually increasing due to limited services and large volumes of traffic moving as a result of recent backlogs in Singapore and Port Klang transhipment hubs.

Latest rates to all Australian ports are being updated to our website as they are received.

It has also been reported that the peak season is easing between Asia and Europe due to traffic volume reductions, thought to be as a result of shipments being moved earlier than normal following the closure of the Suez Canal.

Panama Canal:

The operations of the Panama Canal have eventually returned to normal following more water being available to fill the locks, good recent rains and fresh water also being added manually have resulted in up to 35 mega vessels being moved through the canal daily. The previously used rail connection used by shipping lines to bypass the Canal is still available should the need arise again.

Possible US Longshoreman’s Strike:

Ports on the East Coast of USA are bracing for a possible strike from early October 2024 as unions and ports have so far failed to reach agreement on automation and pay contracts.

We are monitoring the situation and will advise as further news comes to hand.

Bangladesh Unrest

Supply chain chaos across Bangladesh, the world’s third-largest exporter of clothing, has created the longest berthing delays anywhere across the globe.

Bangladeshi ports have been groaning under soaring traffic volumes in recent years, in line with the country’s emergence as a significant exporter, particularly for garments.

Some 50 ships are queuing in a 25 nautical mile stretch outside Chattogram (Chittagong) port following weeks of protests, curfews, internet outages, all of which have resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of leading Bangladesh. Hasina fled the country as protesters stormed her palace in Dhaka. The army has taken over as an interim government, but chaos remains across the nation.

The port of Chattogram handles more than 90% of Bangladesh’s international trade, now has the worst berthing delays in the world, with many ships forced to wait in the Bay of Bengal for upwards of a week.

 

Vessel explosion at Chinese Port:

Yang Ming Line vessel ‘YM Mobility” V.079W has encountered a fire incident while berthed at the Port of Ningbo in China on 9 August 2024.

Preliminary findings suggest that an explosion occurred in a container loaded with dangerous goods on board.

Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation was quickly brought under control, all crew members have been safely evacuated and investigations are ongoing.

News outlets on Chinese social media platform Weibo said the container held refrigerated organic peroxides, a reactive chemical which is highly combustible and liable to exothermic decomposition, which causes heat that rises as the outside temperature increases.

 

Panama Canal:

The Panama Canal Authority have announced that effective immediately, the maximum authorized draft allowed for vessels transiting the Neo Ppanamax Locks will be 49.0 feet (14.94 m), based on the present and projected level of Gatun Lake for the upcoming weeks.

The Panama Canal had to adapt its operations because of the prolonged drought resulting from the climatic variations that affected the levels of the Gatun and Alhajuela Lakes.

The rainy season is gradually bringing the reservoirs to its optimum levels: Gatun Lake now is at 85.02 feet (25.91 m), while Alhajuela Lake is at 217.24 feet (66.21 m).

The Panama Canal remains focused on improving reliability, efficiency and responsiveness to the changing needs of the maritime industry; while continuing to monitor the level of Gatun Lake to announce future draft adjustments in a timely manner.

MSC cancel tranship service to Australia/New Zealand:

MSC Lines have announced effective immediately that have ceased accepting bookings from Europe to Australia and New Zealand on their transhipment service via Singapore.

All cargo can now only move on their direct services from Europe, naturally the costs are substantially higher than the tranship service.

At this time, there are no changes announced in MSC’s other Asia to Australia/New Zealand services.

It is understood that MSC are concentrating their resources on the lucrative markets between Europe and USA.

Space Capacity Cut from Far East Asia:

Rumors abound at present that the shipping lines operating to Australia and New Zealand from Far East Asia are set to slash space capacity by up to 50% from mid to late August.

Being cynical, one would suggest this is a move to drive rates higher for the peak season period at a time when ocean freight costs are already high.

We would suggest that all clients review their requirements asap and please let us know bookings as early as possible, we are hearing that sailings could be sold out if bookings are left later than 2 weeks in advance.

New Cost added in Fremantle Port:

A container weigh in motion fee is being introduced in Fremantle port effective 1st August, 2024, the new fee will apply to all import containers and has been set at AUD 20.00 + 10% GST.

GPSM will pass on this fee @ cost on all future invoices.