Heading towards 2025

Written By Jaz Moncur

As the end of the year approaches, we are preparing for the NZ summer break and the challenges this time of year brings. With that in mind, we have some updates for you to consider:

Annual Christmas Closure

DSH will be closing for New Zealand’s annual summer break. We will be closed from the 20th December 2024 until the 6th January 2025.

During this time, no orders will be placed, packed or dispatched and emails will be unanswered. If you have urgent orders required during this time, please email Jason at jason@dshsystems.com and we will do our best to accommodate, but we do apologise in advance and encourage everyone to try and pre-empt any orders needed during this time.

Shipping

With the aforementioned Christmas break, shipping schedules during the next few months are tricky. Please factor in extended shipping times and demand when ordering.

NOTICE - Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) season started again on 1st September and runs to 30th April 2025. This means extra requirements for cargo from countries that have BMSB populations.

Australia

SEA - Currently, 20’ containers are in short supply across multiple carriers for exports from Australia.

AIR - Consolidations are moving as booked, with available capacity on most carrier

Asia

Air– Consolidated shipments are proceeding as planned, with adequate capacity on most carriers.

SEA - Space remains tight from most of Asia, despite additional capacity being added by Maersk from late October. The expectation is that the impacts of this additional capacity won’t be felt until mid-late November.

  • Typhoons throughout Asia continue to cause disruption to schedules, with this year’s season seemingly running much later.

  • Reminder that we are now coming up to the time of year where Christmas arrivals need to be considered. Depending on the origin, the last sailings to guarantee arrival before Christmas are usually around early-mid November.

  • Port congestion remains an issue in the major transshipment ports. Second leg transits will be affected by this.

  • Space remains tight on some export services to Asia.

Europe

AIR - Space into Europe continues to be constrained. Asian carriers can’t get space from NZ as the rates to Europe from Asia are extremely high.

SEA - BMSB season started on September 1st with the same policies and procedures as last year. Also refer to the ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Australia’ sections of our View from the Bridge for in depth detail on requirements, restrictions, and target countries.

  • Peak export season from Europe after summer holidays has filled up some sailings. Currently, 3-4 weeks’ notice for bookings is best to be safe.

  • On-going attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea have made all container carriers to NZ avoid the Suez Canal until further notice. There will be delays of approximately 2-3 weeks and extra costs as shipping lines reroute via Cape of Good Hope.

  • Vessels are off window arriving into Europe from the Cape. On time arrivals are as low as 21%. This is causing the weekly schedules to be disrupted. This is particularly bad from the UK, where containers are regularly being left behind at the terminal.

  • Container shortages are happening particularly at depots that are further inland, e.g., Czech Republic, Austria.

  • There are equipment shortages in Turkey.

  • 20’ reefers are in low supply across Europe.

  • Congestion in Singapore is causing delays in transit of 1-2 weeks.

North America

AIR – Space remains tight for shipments into the United States due to limited capacity. Bookings are still
taking up to a week to be confirmed.

SEA - US East Coast & Gulf pending strike action by International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) – After 3 days of strike action, work has resumed at all ports. In the short term there will be delays and congestion while the backlog clears.

  • Panama Canal services for ANP/OC1 service with Hapag Lloyd, Maersk and MSC – Continuing low lake levels in the Panama Canal are adversely affecting vessel deadweight capacity. Space is restricted and vessels are booked 3-4 weeks in advance of departure.

  • West Coast North America:

    • There are only 3 WSN departures every month until Christmas. All vessels are heavily booked with booking lead times of 6+ weeks.

    • USA Rail Services; Seattle rail car supply is severely deficient, leading to higher import rail dwell times, with no improvement expected in November.

  • US and Canada Port Congestion. US East Coast and Gulf Ports – Residual delays and disruptions will persist for some time as ports, trucking, and rail services operate at full capacity to clear the backlog caused by the strike. Average wait time for a berth is 2 days. Oakland has berthing delays of 3 days. Long Beach has no berthing delays but on port dwell time is increasing to 5-9 days on average. Seattle has delays of 1-2 days with Terminal 18 closed on some Fridays in the coming weeks.

  • The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are experiencing rail congestion due to increased volumes.

  • ANL/Maersk ex LAX have announced blank sailings coming up. Normally a weekly service – there is a gap in the
    schedule for 21st October, 11th November, and 2nd December. Once schedule integrity comes back, a weekly service will resume.

  • Due to East Coast strikes, we have seen Hapag Lloyd roll and reject bookings.

Lead Times

Steel Hoppers - 6 Weeks

Poly Hoppers - 4 Weeks

Dust Covers - 6 Weeks

Spare Parts - 1.5 Weeks

Orders placed from this point on with 6 weeks lead time will have trouble getting space on board planes and ships in December - please be aware that this is the time to get in touch if you have orders required before Christmas.

Jaz Moncur
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