Newsweek #46: Need, Speed & Greed

Worldwide bottlenecks have been around for weeks now and, although local governments are spending millions of dollars and port authorities are trying numerous strategies from 24/7 work schedules to lifting restrictions, the situation goes on. The benefits that shipping lines and, apparently, forwarders are preventing congestion from resolving. The snail pace that the latter are picking up their containers causes more delays, and even FMC does now have enough regulatory tools to interfere. However, not everything is stuck – California’s ports report improvement. Meanwhile, the East is planning major changes as well with China intending to make the local ports more attractive to foreign investments.

Investments are the key indeed, and airfreight knows it like no other. Years of the lack of financial funding have resulted in the inabilities of the sector across the current crisis. Even with the introduction of new services, the increased capacity adds nothing to the battle against congestion and sky-high cargo rates. It is crucial to keep in mind that not only traditional horsemen of the crisis (shortages, congestion, elevated rates) can add logs to the fire, but the weather as well. Canada’s railways and ports are struggling with floods, and there are no alternatives to divert the traffic. Will new technologies and digitalization speed up the transition to more resilient systems?  Follow MAXMODAL for more updates.