Press Room

NEOLINK Announcement – Do you import containers? Then you need to read this – New Charges being implemented by Australian Ports – 12.8.21

Thursday 12^th of August 2021

Dear Valued Clients,

Some of you may be aware that yesterday evening news broke of a COVID case at Ningbo Port.

As a result of the infection, we have seen the second busiest port in China suspend operations adding further pressure on already further constrained supply chains.

NEOLINK has already been informed by one carrier that shipments arriving into Ningbo via Tianjin this week will be delayed up to 4 weeks now due to the suspension in operations.

For those who are not aware Ningbo (along with Shanghai) is a strategically important port as it connects the north to the south as vessels then call major ports in Guangzhou before heading southbound to Australia or onto EU/NA:

The impact as such will inevitably have a knock-on effect across all ports and even shipment modes as we start to already field enquiries for Air freights now from the region. All of this comes at a terrible time as factories go into final production schedules before we head into the Black Friday Holidays in November in China and supply chains are planning for end of year holidays across the globe.

We are taking a shipment-by-shipment approach for all of our customers and analysing each set of circumstances to ensure we are providing the best recommendations moving forwards. Switching shipments to other ports and other shipment modes are options but add further costs to already expensive supply chains. However, we anticipate most companies will be making this move as well and as such will have a knock on effect to other ports where there have already been existing delays. Any orders that you currently have in production with your suppliers we now anticipate will have some form of delay, regardless of where you import from China as a result.

As of yesterday evening their were 68 vessels anchored at Ningbo Zhoushan and Majishan/Shulanghu awaiting entry into the port – please see below:

We will be proactively reaching out to all of our customers that have orders in our system that may be impacted in the area, however the knock-on effect will also inevitably impact all importers buying from China in the coming weeks.

If there are any outstand PO’s you have placed with your factories that are not in our system, please ensure you get them over to us ASAP so we can start planning ahead of time and try to best manage your shipments.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any member of the NEOLINK Team.

Sources:

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/shipping/081121-covid-19-infection-halts-ningbo-container-terminal-further-straining-supply-chain

https://theloadstar.com/meidong-terminal-closure-at-ningbo-could-reprise-congestion-crisis-at-yantian/

https://splash247.com/the-worlds-largest-port-ningbo-starts-to-turn-ships-away-as-a-worker-tests-positive-for-covid-19/

Cheers,

Best regards,

NEOLINK Marketing Team