How is COVID- 19 affecting the Shipping Industry?
1. Reduced freight due to lock down laws
The Australian Government has announced that all persons entering Australia must self-isolate for 14 days upon entry to the country. “see Industry news” for all country’s policies.
2. Global Mail Slowdown
Operations of shipping companies and related industries have been affected as workers have been advised to avoid travel. Lower demand for commodities and raw material.
Several shipping companies have started warning about reduced earnings in the cruise and travel-related sectors.
3. Ships in Quarantine
Bulk supply chain shipments may be affected due to the internal waterway for China, running through Wuhan. With traffic being disrupted, the effect of coronavirus on shipping can be significant, but it is still too soon to tell.
Countries such as Singapore and Australia have refused to allow any ship that has been at a Chinese port in the preceding two weeks into their ports, while other countries – like South Korea – have put stringent screening measures in place.
4. Factory Production in China
In Beijing Chinese workers returned to factory floors in March, operations remained slow because of sluggish demand, this overall has a huge impact on the world’s economy.
Reports of some companies have changed their routing to go via Sydney and Melbourne prior to docking in Brisbane to allow a 14-day quarantine from the departing country.
The situation is developing day by day, and we strongly encourage customers to visit the Australian border force.
5. Other unforeseen problems
Additional import controls and regulations become costly and time-consuming when something goes wrong or when you fail to comply with these regulations there are penalities to the importers as it can be hard to fix problems once the shipment is on its way. Crew or contaminated stock as seen on the Ruby Princess can cause a giant ripple effect on the distribution chain.
6. Covid-19: Economic Impacts
We’re now getting an unnerving glimpse of just how widespread the effect of the coronavirus pandemic will be on the world economy.
In China, factories are now resuming production after shutting down for the Chinese New Year holidays towards the end of January. This caused major supply issues for companies around the world and experts predict this will continue to have a huge negative impact on the world economy.
Tourism, trade, and hospitality have also been greatly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.