During the last weekend of August, there was a record 47 container vessels waiting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.¹ When ships are anchored offshore waiting for an available berth, they miss subsequent departure dates. This leads to cancelled sailings, reduction in much-needed capacity, and slowdown of container and chassis circulation, which adds to the upward pressure on already record-high rates.²

In China, Meishan Terminal in Ningbo port has reopened, following a Covid-related shutdown in August. Please be aware of office closures in China for the upcoming holidays of Mid-Autumn festival (Sept 19-21) and National Day Golden Week (October 1-7).

Starting October, the Port of Halifax will receive the first direct call between India’s west coast and a Canadian port. The MSC Indus 2 Service will have a port rotation of Mundra – Nhava Sheva – Gioia Tauro – Sines – Halifax – Norfolk – Baltimore – Miami – Freeport – Mundra.

While leisure air travel has increased this year, business travel has faced a much slower return. Many offices remain closed, employees are reluctant to travel, and conferences and trade shows stay mostly virtual. These conditions will change, as business leaders still believe face to face interaction is valuable. Deloitte estimates that by the end of 2022, corporations will be spending 65-80% of their 2019 travel budget.¹

China has partially shut down the world’s third-busiest container port after a worker tested positive with Covid-19. This threatens to disrupt global transportation as peak season nears.

If you’re sick of hearing about Long Beach (LGB) & Los Angeles (LAX) port congestion, we’ve got bad news for you. Expect congestion to get worse. Imports from Asia are not showing any signs of slowing down, and will only increase with peak season approaching. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reached an all time high of 63.4 in July. The Southern California ports are expecting 10% growth in container volumes this year, and many are calling for 24-hour shifts to support the growth.

Late last Friday, Canada’s border agents reached a new tentative agreement with the Canadian government. The deal came after 36 straight hours of negotiations. There was immense pressure to get a deal done, after a daylong work-to-rule campaign by CBSA workers left long lines at international gateways. Because 90% of CBSA workers are deemed essential, they are not legally allowed to strike, but what they did was follow procedures to the letter, which slowed down operations immensely. Reported commercial wait times in Surrey, BC, reached 5 hours by Friday afternoon.

Due to an increase in e-commerce clients, our Toronto office has relocated to a brand-new warehouse space this month. This new location has more space to provide pick and pack services, transloading, storage, and other services to facilitate the growth of our Canadian warehousing services.

Yesterday, July 28, 2021, it was announced that the 9,000 Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) workers voted in favour of a strike. This means that the workers are in a legal strike position as early as next week, because of an impasse in negotiations between their union and the Government of Canada.

Each month we will publish highlights from the important articles we’re reading about shipping and logistics. This month’s articles include forest fires impacting B.C. terminals, lockdowns in Southeast Asia, and reasons for the current high demand for ocean and air freight.

We recently read an excellent article on change management in the Harvard Business Review, with the title “How Good is Your Company at Change? A new system for measuring (and improving) your ability to adapt“. In this article, we share highlights of what we learned and how we are trying to apply these lessons at Canaan Group.

The CP rail line that was shut down because of the B.C. interior wildfires is now operational. The backlog of trains is now being processed.

Each month we will publish highlights from the important articles we’re reading about shipping and logistics. This month’s articles include non-compliance penalties for electronic manifests, US retail demand surges, Southern China port congestion, the West’s misconceptions about doing business in China, and air freight rate updates.

Each month we will publish highlights from the important articles we’re reading about shipping and logistics. This month’s articles include trans-pacific rates doubling next year, carrier on-time reliability near an all-time low, real-time cargo visibility technology, Canada’s ELD implementation, and India’s shipments being impacted by COVID-19.

The Port of Montreal Longshoremen gave a 72-hour notice of an indefinite strike starting Monday, April 26th to the Maritime Employers Association (MEA). 

Each month we will publish highlights from the important articles we’re reading about shipping and logistics. This month’s articles include shippers diverting their cargo as the Port of Montreal dispute escalates, container shortages in Asia due to the Suez Canal Blockage, a $36-million cargo expansion at Edmonton International Airport, using the Port of Vancouver as an alternative to the congested Los Angeles and Long Beach, transporting excavators from Germany to Canada, and celebrating the essential work of our truck drivers.

99.71% of the union dock workers at the Port of Montreal rejected an offer from management. A strike could happen anytime, with 72-hours of notice.

Each month we will publish highlights from the important articles we’re reading about shipping and logistics. This month’s articles include implications of another Port of Montreal strike, the challenges reefer shippers are facing, delays at all North American ports, a look at how air cargo is doing in 2021, and the story of shipping a drilling rig from India to Benin, Africa bring clean water to those in need.