CP Rail shut down their operations in Canada on Sunday, March 20^th, after 3,000 CP workers started picketing. The work stoppage comes at a terrible time for Canadians who are facing the negative impacts of the pandemic, record-high inflation, supply-chain congestion, and the war in Ukraine. Federal representatives want CP Rail and the union to reach a deal to end the work stoppage immediately.

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) employees have voted in favour of a strike that may start as early as March 16^th. This labour dispute looms as CP works on a merger with Kansas City Southern (KCS).

Teamsters Canadian Rail Conference (TCRC) which represents 3,000 conductors, engineers, train personnel, and yard personnel, has an ongoing dispute with CP about salary, benefits, and pension after the current labour agreement expired on Dec 31, 2021.

The factories the manufacture BioNTech-Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines take up multiple stories and almost 20,000 square feet, which make it difficult for developing nations to set up their own manufacturing facilities. But BioNTech has a new design for a mobile vaccine factory that can be built inside 12 shipping container-size units. This modular factory can be built in Germany and filled with state-of-the-art equipment, and then moved via ships, trucks, or trains to another country.¹

Air Canada’s cargo arm recorded an all-time high of almost CAD $1.5 billion in revenue for 2021, compared to CAD $920 million in 2020. In December 2021, Air Canada added its first B767 dedicated freighter to its operating fleet and expects to add three more by the end of 2022. This move allows the airline to expand its services and add more global destinations to its freight service.¹

The situation at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has improved in recent weeks. The ports have been able to reduce vessel backlog from its peak of 109 on January 9^th to 74 on February 16^th. Part of this success is due to an increase of labour availability and progress clearing out empty containers from docks that were clogging up operations. Since October, carriers have sent over 75 “sweeper ships” who solely carried empty containers to Asia.¹

Trucking rates increased for the eighth straight month with average van rates increasing 11% and reefer rates increasing 3% from December 2021 to January 2022.¹ These stats are reported from DAT Freight & Analytics and based on $116 billion in annualized freight transactions. Industry experts say this is the result of tight capacity due disruptions from winter weather, COVID-19, and recent trucker protests.²

COVID-19 appears to be moving from a pandemic to endemic phase, and we are all wondering how soon supply chain issues will resolve. According to Denmark-based research analytics firm Sea-Intelligence, it will take 8-9 months before a return to normal reliability of container shipping.¹

Last Friday, the Biden administration suspended 44 flights from US to China in retaliation for China imposing similar restrictions on American flights in recent weeks. The Chinese government cancelled flights after passengers tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in China, even though those passengers tested negative before getting on the planes.

Southern California’s ports garnered a lot of attention last year with record-breaking congestion and help from the US president to move to 24/7 operations. Although the congestion is slowly being cleared, there is labour uncertainty looming with the contracts of 15,000 port workers expiring on July 1, 2022. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) represents employees at 29 West Coast Ports in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California.

Effective January 22, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is requiring that all Canadian and non-U.S. drivers entering the US for essential or non-essential reasons be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination. A week earlier, the Canadian government began requiring all truckers crossing the border from the US into Canada to be vaccinated. Please expect increased wait times at US land border crossings as travelers get used to the new requirements.

China’s upcoming Chinese New Year holiday is from January 31 to February 6. This will result in “blank sailings”, meaning that many shipping companies will decide to skip Chinese ports during this time period. Check with your customer service representative to see if this will impact any of your shipment schedules (and if you were curious, this year is the year of the Tiger).

Three former SpaceX engineers have raised $50 million to build what is described as “Tesla for freight trains”. Their company, Parallel Systems, has invented electric motorized train wheels. Cargo containers can be placed on top of the wheels, and the wheels can drive the container up to 500 miles on a track.

The Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) is a survey of supply chain professionals that measures activity throughout the transportation, logistics, and warehousing sectors. November’s report shows that inventory levels and warehousing utilization are increasing, but at a slower rate than before. Inventory costs, warehousing prices, transportation utilization, and transportation prices are increasing, at a higher rate than before. And warehousing capacity and transportation capacity are contracting. To read the full report, go to the LMI website.

Last week there were 101 containers ships waiting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. LA-LB ports are expected to handle 3 million more containers in 2021 than the previous year. A busy month used to be 800,000 containers per month, and during 2021, the ports have been handling 900,000 containers per month.