As part of our commitment to provide you with the most up-to-date and relevant information on the logistics industry, we share our Market Update on the Latin American market.
You will find information and interesting data on the update of the state of the ports, the most important transport routes and relevant news.
We hope you'll find the following information helpful, as well as inspiring to boost your business and keep your cargo moving.
Starting this year with the January Market Update, we want to wish you a Happy New Year, may this year bring new happiness, new goals, new achievements and, many new inspirations. We are looking forward to sharing with you interesting and valuable information in the following months.
Topic of the month
2023 starts with China reopening its economy after the Zero Covid policy maintained during 2022. This event adds considerable uncertainty about what will happen and the possible impact on the supply chains. This article will analyze the possible scenarios and how companies can remain diligent in overcoming new challenges.
In the past weeks, China has been remaking its Zero Covid policy and reopening the country, ending its massive testing, lockdown, and quarantine strategies. During the past two years, China´s main challenge was managing congested logistics on the primary trade lens since their exports exploded. Now, the country is opening, and there are no restrictions at all. Many manufacturers are going to their towns to celebrate with their families. Adding up that the Lunar New Year starts on January 22, 2023, so a lot of factories will be closing or lowering their production and waiting for the workers to come back from their hometowns and concerned about the possibility of getting infected while they are away.
The abrupt opening of the economy is the consequence of the massive protests against the COVID approach that has been suffocating China's economy. Now, the rapid opening has led to an estimated five million hospitalizations, a significant challenge to labor shortage, and an issue for the manufacturing sector, which is just starting to rise. Still, it is expected to become worst for the rest of the world by the end of January and February.
Labor shortages and supply chain disruptions
Experts say fewer restrictions, domestic traveling, and upcoming holidays in China will result in many people getting sick from Covid19 over the following months, something that is already becoming visible over China. It is expected that companies will experience shortages mainly in the retail, manufacturing, catering, hospital, and delivery sectors.
The pandemic has been affecting the world for the past three years. Still, experts foresee that workforce in China may be higher because many laborers in the industry, such as manufacturing, are housed in dorms with a shared room and multiple colleagues working shoulder by shoulder which will increase the risk of a spread inside the factories.
Also, many manufacturers in China have different operations on campus, like facilities. And different factories have production, manufacturing, and administrative areas, and some common sharing spaces such as canteen, housing, and rest areas are allocated within the campus. This increases the vulnerability of the operations, particularly to disruption from a Covid outbreak.
A similar outbreak happened last year with dock and logistics workers in the United States, which is helping as an example and taking action before an outbreak of Covid in China affects the supply chain and their manufacturing industry.
Policies that will impact logistics
The State Council has launched some policies that will help prevent and control the pandemic and is expected to have a positive impact on the supply chains.
- Moderation of logistics restrictions, such as air and sea transportation. Reducing quarantine time for people working in that sector, so they don’t repeat quarantine at the origin or destinations. Increasing cross-border flow and traffic rate.
- Reduce restrictions on personnel for freight and express delivery. 5-day monitoring for high-risk positions and increased employee testing according to administrative regions.
- “Layer by layer,” they are working on each layer’s peculiarity and trying to attack the challenges per sector, schools, manufacturing sector, administrative, traffic, etc.
China’s economic development goes along with a smooth logistics flow; the current layered pandemic prevention and management have cut off the main transportation, and the idea is to work towards a continuous flow for the supply chain into and out of China. Managers are already forecasting and working on contingency plans to keep their operations, stocks, and inventory so that the country’s logistics do not significantly affect them.
Ocean updates
| Trade lane | Comments | Demand Trend |
|---|---|---|
|
Trade lane
East Coast to Asia
|
Comments
Reefer China market keeps soft but expectation demand improvement after the Chinese new year as well with the Chinese government easing on Covid restrictions.
The cotton export pace is decreasing as demand is not showing up (especially to China). Recession is also a question mark all around the world. |
Demand Trend
Stable
|
|
Trade lane
East Coast to Europe
|
Comments
Despite the high inflation and consumption in Europe is still not normal behavior, on dry cargo, it’s possible to see a higher demand for wood, cotton, and coffee. On reefer, the European meat market remains soft with low price per KG.
|
Demand Trend
Stable
|
Main port status
Key ports across our global network have made significant improvements in waiting time, as a consequence of less congestion and a drop in volumes,
- In Northern Europe, the Situation at ports remains stable however due to weather disruptions on the crossing we should be an attempt at line-up delays, mainly in Southampton, Antwerp, and Bremerhaven.
- In Asia, the situation is variable due to strong winds impacting vessel productivity and as consequence bringing delays to the port line-up, the main terminals impacted are Ningbo and Qingdao, and improvements for Busan and Shanghai have been imminent. Tauranga is severely congested, waiting time can reach up to 7 days for vessels out of the window and 3 days for vessels arriving on proforma.
- In Latin America the situation-related with weather disruption has improved in the last weeks in the Gulf of Mexico and as per the forecast should remain as is for the rest of January, in Buenos Aires the strong winds are impacting the Line up with 1-2 days of waiting time.
- In North America, overall, the situation has had a significant improvement, waiting times in both, the East and West coasts have reduced, Oakland, Seattle, Norfolk, Savannah, and Baltimore (where labor situation is improving), Houston waiting time can reach 2 days for US Flag vessels and 8 days the rest of the vessel, still impacted due to labor shortage. For the Canadian ports, Vancouver is impacted due to the heavy winter having a waiting time of 6 days.
| Less than 1 Day | 1-3 Days | 4 - 7 days | More than 7 days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Latin America
|
Less than 1 Day
SSA/ Manzanillo MX, Lazaro Cardenas, Veracruz, Altamira, Moin, Balboa, Manzanillo, PA, PSA, Cristobal, Cartagena, Buenaventura, Santa Marta, Turbo, Callao, Guayaquil, Valparaiso, San Antonio (Chile), San Vicente, Santos, Paranagua, Itajai, Itapoa, Paranagua, Montevideo.
|
1-3 Days
Buenos Aires
|
4 - 7 days
|
More than 7 days
|
|
Rest of World
|
Less than 1 Day
Singapore, Malaysia, Xiamen, Norfolk (USA Flag), Charleston, Wilmington, North Charleston, Jacksonville, Port Everglades, Tampa, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Newark, Miami, Freeport, Mobile, Seattle, Shangai, Busan
|
1-3 Days
Montreal, Halifax, Baltimore, New Orleans, Oakland, Savannah, Antwerp,Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, London, Hamburg, Qingdao, Ningbo
|
4 - 7 days
Norfolk & Savannah (No USA Flag vessels), Vancouver, Prince Rupert(*)
|
More than 7 days
Tauranga, Houston (*)
|
(*) - cargo connections can be impacted considering the delays reported
Landside updates
ECSA
Paraguay: Paraguay River downspout is close to a record low. Paraguayan shipping companies and authorities expressed concern after the downspout at the Paraguay River nears its third consecutive all-time low.
With current levels matching those of a drought (only 50 centimeters from the historical record of 2021), the situation is already impacting navigability, particularly in Asunción and Villeta.
According to the Centro de Armadores Fluviales y Marítimos del Paraguay (Cafym), over 70% of Paraguayan foreign trade moves by waterway.
Maersk Group offers UY-PY & PY-UY competitive trucking services to reduce the impact on the market and support importers/exporters.
Brazil:
Abralog Award – Multimodality
Innova is the first terminal implemented within São Paulo city, a product developed aiming to offer our customers a logistic solution in the region. As the heavy traffic and city size are roadblocks on the logistic chain, Innova Terminal offers more agility in container delivery.
Air updates
ECSA: The resume of passenger planes with cargo option (PAX) provided more capacity, and the low perishable season countrywide has lowered the demand.
MAA: Air Cargo tonnage dropped strongly comepared with last year holiday season.
Regarding capacity , MAA market remain stable with some reductions in Fuel Surcharge
CAR: Valentine's Flower Season in Colombia will start on Week 2 and will be closed by Week 6 of 2023, meaning that 90% of the goods exported will be flowers, mainly to US & European destinations.
Airlines are anticipating triplicating their regular capacity during this season, especially during Weeks 4 to 6; and confirming prioritization for flowers and stems over other perishables and dry cargoes.
For the rest of CAR region countries, cargo tonnages are decreasing, even perishables such as fruits and vegetables due to winter and rainy season; capacity is stable.
Highlights
Outsmart change in the lifestyle industry: Join Maersk at COLOMBIATEX 2023
We’re here to help you stay ahead of change
Maersk expands its footprint in Latin America with a new warehouse in Brazil
As part of our commitment to being a global integrator of logistics, A.P. Moller – Maersk opened a new warehouse in Cajamar in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in September 2022.
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