UK Port Congestion
UK Port Congestion
The global COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly impacted the supply chain worldwide. In effect, this has created a shortage of containers available throughout the Far East and with the additional impact of Shipping Lines reducing capacity on the Asia-Europe routes, a lower than average capacity is available. The reduction in sailings has also extended shipping durations and is expected to continue until around Mid-February 2021.
Just 1 Source & Supply Limited have inevitably been affected by port congestion and space availability… issues which relate and factor into this include:
- Fewer empty shipping containers available – arising from the halt in production throughout China during Q2 of 2020
- Containers Ships being re-routed to available ports following UK Congestion (i.e. making a stop at another country before returning to the UK)
- High demand for PPE and goods from the Far East resulting in fewer container spaces on vessels, overwhelming supply chains (including 11,000 containers of PPE ordered by the Government for front line staff)
- Brexit ‘stock-piling’ by companies who are preparing for uncertainty following the Brexit transition period
- A build-up of empty containers and UK export containers in Ports due to the reduction in vessel schedules
- The build up to Chinese New Year
These unforeseen circumstances mean that, unfortunately, suppliers have no control in providing a resolution or guaranteeing stock arriving on a specific date.
Typically, we receive between 5 and 7 containers per month, which enables us to provide you with Predator products on a next day service. To give an example of the impact on ourselves, one container which had been scheduled to arrive on the 4th November has since been rescheduled several times, finally arriving on 25th November!
On other occasions, we have experienced vessels by-passing Felixstowe (due to port congestion) and sailing to European Ports to release cargo, which is then shipped on a feeder vessel back to the UK Ports – extending anticipated delivery times.
Currently, the major UK Ports, servicing the Asia trade, are handling in excess of 170,000 container movements per week.
Click here to read a related BBC article regarding this topic.
To support your business, we try to hold approximately 6 months stock of our key lines, based on historical sales and an element of growth, to provide consistent supply throughout this crisis (give or take the odd product).
Rest assured, we still have healthy stocks of Predator gloves in our warehouse, with a value of over £1.8m. Although we have limited control of the shipping lines, we have put contingency plans in place to keep our Distribution Partners supplied.
If you would like more information on the above or would like to discuss any of the products in our portfolio; you are welcome to contact us via the below:
Call – 01653 617718
Email – sales@just1source.com
