Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you surely could gather from the media, there was an incident in the Suez Canal and the "Ever Given" went off course on her way from Asia to Europe and blocked the onward journey for ships in both direction to Asia and to Europe until March 30th, 2021.
However, it can currently be assumed that even after the salvage of the "Ever Given", the resulting delays will continue to be felt for a longer period of time and that the currently tense situation with regard to empty equipment for export from Europe will become even more acute.
In addition, sea and land congestion at terminals and ports is expected to worsen.
The terminals in Rotterdam and Antwerp have already started, as well as Hamburg, to restrict the delivery times for containers. Containers can now only be delivered within a time window set by the terminal.
The specified time windows are subject to daily changes and can even be changed on the scheduled delivery day, making it almost impossible to plan deliveries accordingly.
Due to this fact, it will increasingly happen that containers have to be stored spontaneously until a time window for delivery is released. Any additional costs arising from this will be borne by the goods.
We ask for your understanding that we have to pass on these costs to you.
At the moment we are receiving first information that numerous shipping companies have announced a booking stop for shipments from Europe to the eastern hemisphere and that releases of empty containers for various departures have been stopped or even cancelled.
Furthermore, various carriers have informed us that existing (Demurrage / Detention) agreements in Europe will be reduced to a minimum in order to to counteract the tense equipment situation.
Affected are all cruising areas like Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Asia, Australia, Oceania as well as North and South America.
Your personal FMS contact is at your disposal for further questions.
With best regards,
Your Fr. Meyer's Sohn Team
