News

Dear valued Customer,

new year brought old challenges !

On the West Coast, there aren’t many visible signs of improvement despite the Biden administration’s intervention to unclog the pileup. The average wait for berth space for ships arriving into Los Angeles hit a record 23.4 days this week, up from 20.9 on Dec. 1, when President Joe Biden called for better coordination and faster movement of goods through the nation’s ports.

The British International Freight Association is calling on the U.K. government to investigate the state of competition within the global container-shipping market, as transportation costs remain elevated heading into the third year of the pandemic.

The shipping lines are benefiting from all the disruptions, said BIFA, with a recent forecast from Drewry suggesting that the main container carriers made more than $150 billion in profit in 2021. That’s more than the previous 20 years combined, the group said, calling it “a case of blatant profiteering.”

“2022 is shaping up to be another year of severe disruption, under supply and extreme cost for cargo owners,” said Simon Heaney, an analyst at maritime research consultancy Drewry. “The virus is once again showing it’s in charge,” he said, predicting another 12 months of stretched labor and healthcare-related red tape. 

As the mutated omicron variant takes hold, workers who deliver goods on ships and trucks are shouldering the brunt of a supply chain infrastructure still mired in chaos. Faced with long weeks of quarantine combined with the precarious nature of crossing borders and fears of getting sick, some people are refusing contracts while others are looking for work elsewhere, companies say.

Our industry and the whole world of the international trade will face few hurdles this year:  our company will do the utmost to minimize any issue encountered by our customers in the international logistics.

Thank you for working with us as we navigate this challenging period.

Carlo Guanziroli

General Manager