DACHSER Thailand at White Asparagus Dinner in Bangkok

LogiPharma 2022

From April 4 - 7, 2022, LogiPharma, the world's largest pharmaceutical supply chain event, will take place in Nice / France.

IMO 2020 and its impact on sea freight transportation

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is taking initiatives to promote sustainability and reduce harmful sulphur gases emissions. While the new regulation to reduced maximum sulphur content (currently 3.5%) to 0.5% will be fully enforced on January 1, 2020, it is expected that the adjustment on bunker surcharge will come into effect already at the last quarter of 2019.

• Impact on shippers

With the new regulations to be fully enforced on January 1, 2020, carriers are getting prepared during the course of the year with some options available:

• Switch to low-sulphur fuel
• Use Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems which commonly known as a “scrubber” to clean up the sulphur oxide emitted from the vessel’s engine.
• Change the fleet to Liquefied Natural Gas Ships that are powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). LNG is considered as a cleaner fuel with less emission of greenhouse gases including sulphur oxide.

To ensure a smooth transition, carriers have to implement the above changes before January 1, 2020. Due to the investment in clean energy and cleaning systems, there will be an adjustment to the bunker surcharge formula which is expected to be effective from the last quarter of 2019.

• What is IMO 2020?

IMO is proactively taking steps to reduce marine pollution and minimize the vessels’ impact on global warming. Currently, most of the cargo ships use heavy fuel oil which is derived from crude oil and contains sulphur oxide. The gases can cause acid rain and trigger respiratory diseases. Therefore, the tolerant of sulphur oxide emissions has been tightened progressively throughout the past decade.

Also known as “IMO 2020 fuel sulphur regulation”, IMO 2020 is an initiative from the IMO which aims to reduce sulphur oxide emissions from ships.

By the deadline of January 1, 2020, all carriers will have to comply with the new regulation, which imposes a 0.5% global sulphur cap on fuel content and replaces the current limit of 3.5%.

If you have any questions regarding this topic, please feel free to reach out to your local DACHSER representative.

US West Coast Port Situation

These delays are primarily due to the following reasons:

• Large number of positive COVID-19 cases among port workers
• General industry shortage of port personnel
• The upcoming holiday season
• Too few crane operators
• Chassis shortages

This is not a single ocean carrier challenge, this is an industry challenge.

Our concern for the near future is that the situation will only become more dire. More vessels are in transit already and delays will continue to increase. The situation will be intensified further by the trucker shortage that the industry is already facing.

In preparation to minimize the effects of these delays, we here at DACHSER are working closely and tirelessly with our contacts to check on drayage capacity, transit times, unloading updates, and potential demurrage charges. 

Please schedule the picks ups of your container freight well in advance in order to avoid further delays at your supply chain, and to also avoid additional charges at the port, such as demurrage and detention. DACHSER are here to assist you during this time and to help arranging pick up options to save you time and money.

We will keep you up to date on the status of your shipments as well as the situation in the ports. Should you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact your local DACHSER representative.

We also encourage you to sign up to receive our E-Newsletter to receive industry updates as soon as they become available. This can be done through our website: https://www.dachser-news.com/?lang=en-HK