Due to the superimposed impact of the epidemic and the Spring Festival, the Guangdong-Hong Kong route barge company plans to suspend the Guangdong-Hong Kong route starting from mid-January 2021. Affected by this, many shipping companies such as ONE, OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd have issued notices and suspended Receive cargo from multiple ports in South China and other places.
Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntelligence Consulting, pointed out that although the mainline ships are not covered by the suspension, "the decline in the service capacity of barges will affect the entire South China connection market."
For shipping companies, there are two benefits to stop accepting space reservations: First, it can digest orders that have been received before; second, after nearly a month of empty container allocation, it will help alleviate the current shortage of containers in China’s ports. status.
In view of this, until the Spring Festival, the freight rate will not be reduced in any way, the tightness of empty containers will not be alleviated, and no bookings will continue.
Hapag-Lloyd suspends South China branch service during the Spring Festival
Due to quarantine requirements for crew sailing between South China and Hong Kong after the Spring Festival holiday in 2021, feeder operators in South China announced that they will suspend services from January to February 2021. In consideration of this situation, Hapag-Lloyd will temporarily suspend the receiving of cargo at the final destination in the Pearl River Delta and Fuzhou until further notice.
However, it will continue to accept cargo arriving at major ports (ie Hong Kong, Yantian, Shekou) via mainline services. Please note that the time of suspension of booking reception in South China is based on the estimated time of arrival at major ports.
After unloading the cargo during the outage of the feeder line operator, any other expenses and responsibilities incurred at the transshipment port (Hong Kong, Shekou, Yantian) related to detention fees, terminal storage or terminal fees will be borne by the cargo owner .
Affected ports:
Hapag-Lloyd announced on December 3 that the port is congested due to stricter customs inspections and disinfection of imported food entering Huangpu. From now on, we will temporarily stop accepting reservations for refrigerated containers entering Huangpu Port in China until further notice. At the same time, it was announced that it will temporarily stop accepting orders for imported reefer containers from Busan, South Korea to Tianjin, China, with immediate effect.
In addition, Hapag-Lloyd also announced the suspension of all 40' freezer bookings in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and the Czech Republic until the end of December 2020.
ONE suspends receiving cargo from South China during the Spring Festival
As crews on the coastal feeder between South China and Hong Kong are required to undergo COVID-19 quarantine, the feeder operator announced the suspension of services from mid-January to the end of February 2021. Taking into account this situation, the acceptance of all container types, including dangerous goods containers, reefer containers and major cargo destined for ports in South China, Guangxi and Fujian, will be suspended. The suspension of booking arrangements through major ports in South China is shown in the following table:
Due to stricter customs inspection and disinfection requirements for refrigerated containers imported into Xiamen, Fuzhou and Fuqing ports, the delivery of inbound refrigerated containers at these ports has been slow and is facing congestion.
In consideration of this situation, starting from December 9, 2020 (shipping date), ONE will stop accepting bookings for all refrigerated goods arriving and transshipped through Xiamen, China, until further notice. For containers in transit, ONE will strongly encourage customers to consider changing the destination to other alternative ports, especially for time-sensitive goods, such as fresh refrigerated goods. For refrigerated containers that have been shipped to Xiamen or are waiting to be shipped to Xiamen at the transshipment port, please note that all related costs will be paid on the consignee’s account and paid upon delivery.
Similarly, in view of the above circumstances, starting from December 8, 2020 (shipping date), ONE will stop accepting all orders for refrigerated goods to Fuzhou and Fuqing, China, until further notice.
For containers in transit, ONE strongly recommends that customers change their destinations to other ports, especially for time-sensitive goods, such as fresh and refrigerated goods. For containers that have been transshipped to Fuzhou/Fuqing or are to be shipped to Fuzhou/Fuqing at the transshipment port, once the feeder space of Fuzhou/Fuqing is available, a specific surcharge will be charged when loading.
Previously, Ocean Network Shipping (ONE) issued a notice stating that due to stricter customs inspections and disinfection procedures for imported food goods (including meat, seafood, dairy products, fruits and vegetables), Guangzhou Huangpu Port is facing a slow, Port congestion and other issues.
In view of this, from November 26 (the day of shipment), ONE announced that it will stop accepting orders for food products shipped to Huangpu Port in Guangzhou until further notice. For goods that are already in transit, ONE recommends that customers consider changing the port of destination, especially time-sensitive goods such as chilled and frozen.
OOCL suspends barge services in multiple ports
OOCL issued a customer advisory stating that due to the epidemic, the capacity of the Hong Kong and Macau South China barge routes has dropped significantly. It is expected that during the 2021 Spring Festival holiday, the import operations of ports in South China (including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan and Guizhou) will be affected and restricted.
The specific date depends on the destination of the container:
From January 18 to February 21, 2021, barge services to Hainan/Guangxi/Pearl River Delta ports (including Huangpu, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shantou, etc.) will be suspended;
From January 16 to February 21, 2021, cargo shipments of dangerous goods to ports in the Pearl River Delta economic centers such as Guangzhou, Foshan and Jiangmen will be suspended.
From January 18 to February 21, 2021, the import of frozen products will be prohibited at ports in the Pearl River Delta (including Huangpu, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shantou, etc.);
From January 16 to February 19, 2021, the import of over-restricted cargo is prohibited at the ports of the Pearl River Delta (including Huangpu, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shantou, etc.).
