February 2022

Greater China

• China Air Freight operations remain at a reduced but functional level due to quarantine regulations. The market resuming in the latter half of February.
• Sea Freight in China continues to be beleaguered by delays and labour shortages amongst pandemic prevention measures and the Lunar New Year holiday.
• Sea Freight in Taiwan is still experiencing serious delays, unstable schedules and blank sailings, particularly in TPEB and MED.
• The Rail market appears to be settling in terms of space and transit time both Eastbound and Westbound.
• Sea Freight in Hong Kong reports FEWB, Oceania trade, Latin America trade and TPEB struggling to regain stability.
• Taiwan’s Air Freight market has risen again due to Covid-19 and cargo congestion in Hong Kong. Cases of Omicron detected at Taipei International Airports has also slowed operations as staff are subject to quarantine measures.

South Korea

• For Air, carriers are fully operational, but ground handling is at over-capacity.
• Sea Freight space remains tight.

• The region’s main transshipment hubs in Singapore and Port Klang remain congested, with turnaround times estimated to be 3-7 days.
• Post Lunar New Year Sea Freight cargo rushes are expected, however Sea Freight  equipment shortages persist.
• Thailand Air Freight prices may rise due to increased demand, with rates to the US particularly high. Please be aware that cargo may be delayed due to space issues.

• We continue to take preventative and proactive measures to safeguard our employees’ health and maintain day-to-day operations with little impact to customer supple chains.
• Curfews in place due to Covid-19 include Maharashtra 23:00-05:00, Delhi from Friday 22:00 until Monday 05:00 and an ongoing nighttime curfew during the weekdays; Tamil Nadu from 22:00 to 05:00 as well as complete lockdown on Sundays; West Bengal, Orissa and Karnataka from 22:00 to 05:00; Gujarat state from 22:00 to 06:00; Night curfews in the majority of states. We kindly request that customers please plan their shipping accordingly to avoid delays.
• Air Freight space challenges remain and are expected to increase in February and March until carriers recover pre-pandemic flight regularity.
• Online payments will be accepted to facilitate ease of business, however for any OBL-related submission (DO release for imports or telex release for exports) and Original NOC document submission, customers will need to continue visiting the counters. We encourage customers to make use of the online payment and Sea Way BLs as much as possible.
• Ports remain operational as usual.
• Vessel schedules continue to fluctuate impacting loading, discharge and transshipment schedules.
• Rail and road remain unaffected and ICD/CFS yards remain operational as usual.