BULLETIN : MILITARY OPERATIONS KOREA CAUSING FURTHER VESSEL DELAY + SHANGHAI LOCKDOWN 28TH MARCH 2022

MILITARY OPERATIONS KOREA CAUSING FURTHER VESSEL DELAY

North Korea has test fired its largest Intercontinental Range Ballistic Missile under the orders if authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un.

The report by North Korean state media on Friday came a day after the militaries of South Korea and Japan said they detected the North launching an ICBM from an airport near capital Pyongyang in its first long-range test since 2017.

It is reported the Hwasong-17 ICBM was fired on a high trajectory to avoid the territorial waters of neighbours. It reached a maximum altitude of 6,248 kilometres and travelled 1,090 kilometres during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries had announced similar flight details, which analysts say suggested that the missile could reach targets 15,000 kilometres away when fired on normal trajectory with a warhead weighing less than a ton. That would place the entire USA mainland within striking distance.

South Korea’s military responded to Thursday’s launch with live-fire drills of its own missiles launched from land, a fighter jet and a ship, underscoring a revival of tensions as nuclear negotiations remain frozen.

Current military action has seen vessel passage paused and thus causing a delay in vessels transhipping through Korea.

This delay will affect vessels bound for North East Asia ports before their southbound route to Australia , as well as South East Asia and Europe loops transhipping through these International water zones.

Global Supply chains remain negatively impacted by the pandemic and events of this nature, along with China lockdowns, and global port congestions, will further cement the overall disruption to the vessel schedules and only serves to warn of previous supply chain timetables not being sustainable , nor predictable in our current market conditions.

We predict a delay in arrival and departure of a host of vessels, and, as carriers update us , our teams will relay the updated information directly to clients who may be affected by same.

SHANGHAI LOCKDOWN 28TH MARCH 2022

Escalation of positive Covid cases in Shanghai has seen a government lockdown in both Pudong and Puxi. The government will now engage in city -wide nucleic acid testing from today.

Pudong lockdown will be imposed from 5am 28 Mar to 5am 1 Apr. During the lockdown, all local companies must conduct closed-door operations except for public services companies.

As most CFS and warehouse operations are within Pudong location, most business activity is now forced to closure until 01.04.22.

For those factories operating outside of these zones may truck cargo to Ningbo port, we predict this option will quickly see demand outstrip supply and port congestion to escalate ex Ningbo port.

Unfortunately, this adds further fuel to the vessel disruption fire with no clear path for a strategy for importers to offset these events.

The only likely panacea for this is increased time built into future production timelines to buffer from ongoing events.

Due to lockdowns, communications ex Shanghai are minimal at present. Shipments effected by these events will be relayed to those clients affected in due course.