NEOLINK Announcement – Increasing Industrial Action at Australian Ports
Thursday 22, November 2018
Dear Valued Clients,
Over the past couple of weeks there has been an increase in industrial activity (details attached) by the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia) at Australian Ports.
We have also been notified that there will be stop work meetings at all terminals across Australia next week due to the MUA’s Annual General meeting.
- What is exactly happening?: Ports across Australia will cease operations during different periods on Tuesday the 27th and Thursday 29th of November | Slots will not be released during these periods and limited will be released when open | The rail lines into the ports will also be shut down for 8 hours | all port opening and closing times will be shortening, so the working day will be significantly shorter.
- What impact will this have?: This will have a big impact on vessel congestion across the ports waiting to dock and will result in fewer slots for carrier pick ups from the wharf over the coming weeks. As a result this will create added pressures across the industry on how we book, slot and manage customer deliveries of containers from the ports.
- What are we doing to manage?: NEOLINK will continue to secure as many slots as possible by running both off peak pick ups and rail off the ports where we can to best manage the congestion.
- What are your Account Managers going to be doing? Your NEOLINK Account Managers will proactively be in contact to forward plan all bookings and discuss impact on potential arriving containers. If you have CFR or CIF shipments that we are not aware of, please let us know 5-7 days prior to arrival so we can ensure we are planning as best as we possibly can to ensure we can manage your shipment as best we can.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your NEOLINK Account Manager or Chris and I respectively.
Best regards,
Sean Crook
Director
