As previously advised in member notices, Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) is represented on the Empty Container Working Group (ECWG) established by Transport for NSW (TfNSW) to address long term reforms to assist in the management of empty container returns – latest communique available HERE.
While this is a positive initiative, the ECWG has no influence over current operational matters.
Independently from this forum, FTA and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) continue to engage with members, shipping lines and regulators in providing the below status report:
• Empty Containers
The situation with empty containers has seen no measurable change in recent weeks. Over the past 6 months there has been an imbalance of imports to exports of some 45, 000 teu. This only compounds the surpluses that were occurring prior Christmas 2019, well before COVID and industrial action, where in the last 4 months of 2019 the imbalance was 15,000 plus TEU.
• Evacuations
FTA understand that some shipping lines have increased their exchanges, however these are in the high hundreds / low thousands and are again not having a measurable reduction across the empty container parks (ECPs) capacity. We do not see any immediate relief until such time as "sweeper vessels" are scheduled to evacuate significant volumes of containers. That said we are advised this week there will be some exchanges (approx 3-5,000 TEU) which should assist.
• Container Detention
The decreased capacity in the Sydney empty container park (ECP) market is seeing shipping lines advise that they are unable to provide de-hire locations for THEIR empty containers. Whilst FTA continue to seek blanket detention waivers, shipping lines are maintaining a stance of acting on a case by case basis as industry still does have the limited ability to dehire on an intermittent basis. FTA / APSA continue to reiterate that this is a totally unreasonable measure, only increasing the workload for industry to maintain data supporting the need for relief and then shipping line staff having to validate the claims.
• Congestion
FTA understand that the situation in Sydney has improved with DP World advising they now have no delays with their scheduled arrivals. Ad-hoc vessel calls may sustain a delay of 1-2 days. We understand the situation at Patrick Terminals has also improved with most of their vessels calls no longer omitting Sydney. Advice from members and shipping lines is that high import volumes are expected well past Christmas and possibly past Chinese New Year (mid February). So without more positive action by shipping lines to deploy large capacity sweeper vessels to evacuate empties, the ECP situation will not improve as it would seem a 1:1 or 1:1.5 exchange will not provide the necessary operational relief.
• Shipping Update (Australia / New Zealand) - WEBINAR
On a more positive note, we are extremely grateful to Maersk and Hamburg-Sud who have agreed to provide a first-hand account from their perspective on the current status of Australia and New Zealand shipping and projections for the months ahead.
We encourage members to join us for a FREE webinar at 12PM AEDT on Wednesday 9 December 2020 to hear from My Therese Blank (Head of Oceania Export Market, Regional Ocean Management, Maersk).
FTA will continue to represent members' interests and will provide ongoing updates.
John Park - Head of Business Operations, FTA / APSA.