Inland trailer situation
The truck fleet plans to stage peaceful protests in several U.S. cities in the coming weeks. Even small cities with locally or regionally organized fleets can impact capacity and cause traffic delays.
Cold conditions in Ohio Valley cause additional disruption
Snow and ice are expected to continue to affect services in the area in the coming weeks.
Export containers are now required inside the CSX reservation gate in Detroit. Limited appointments push availability to 5-7 days.
Southeast Consolidation Market
The Port of Charleston's container terminal will open its doors for Sunday trucks for the next six weeks and extend its normal hours to clear the backlog of long-lived containers and reduce queues for ships waiting for berths. Use these extended hours to help move containers out of port and increase terminal capacity.
Continued shortages of chassis in the region are still contributing to port congestion. The South Atlantic Container Pool (SACP) is gradually improving in both the Charleston and Savannah markets.
Improvements to the Garden City Terminal in Savannah, Georgia by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) will increase capacity to 820,000 TEUs by June 2022. This will help ease congestion problems for carriers. Another game-changer for GPA is the Port of Savannah expansion project that began this month. The deeper channel will allow ships with a capacity of over 16,000 TEU to carry heavier loads and cross the river with better scheduling flexibility.
Production capacity in the western region is difficult to rebound
Imports in Los Angeles/Long Beach continue to trend upward, but are expected to moderate in the coming weeks. Local capacity remains tight, especially for exports and dangerous goods. Lack of chassis equipment, yard space and empty return appointments resulted in containers staying longer than the free time provided by the steamship line.
The increase in hazardous and overweight cargo at the Port of Houston has created additional challenges for coordinating local carriers. Long wait times and limited carrier capacity in the Houston/Dallas Fort Worth corridor—considering 4 to 6 weeks lead time for new bookings.
Canada
The labor agreement between Canadian Pacific (CP) Railroad and the Truckers Canadian Railroad Conference (TCRC) expires on December 31, 2021. Mediation between the two parties continues, with negotiations scheduled for March 11-16, 2022. If no agreement is reached, a 21 - cooling-off period will come into effect - at which point the Secretary of Labor can appoint a mediator to broker an agreement. Legal lockouts cannot be made until the 21 days have expired.
Oceania
All ports have been affected by recent heavy rains and unprecedented flooding in Queensland and northern NSW. Delays are expected in the coming weeks, significantly impacting ship schedules.
Port of Brisbane has imposed restrictions and vessel movement will resume 24/7 on 10 March 2022. Floating debris and river velocity are major concerns for ship safety. Ships are arriving on time in Port Adelaide as Brisbane's backlog surges - and the gathering of ships will be felt over the coming month.
Several quarantine and customs posts in Sydney have temporarily stopped accepting new bookings due to congestion. The facilities will reopen once the backlog is cleared. The fumigation of containers is delayed by up to two weeks on average.
In Brisbane and Sydney, the container shipping network has faced challenges with delivery delays, shortages of skilled labour and the return of empty containers.
Fuel costs rose, with airlines raising fuel taxes mid-month.
