International trade February 2021 News [Procurement - Logistics - Compliance]

During the month of February, the Covid-19 pandemic is still present all over the world and due to this pandemic, events have occurred that have had on the impact of international trade, the continuous dispatch of vaccines, the crisis for small businesses in the UK and rising prices for exporters.

In addition, during the month of February 2021, there was the Chinese New Year, which as we already know, Chinese companies do not work in this period and the costs for consumers increase but in this month, the impact has been a little different.

Here you can read the news of February 2021 in more detail.

The increased demand for dry ice and the introduction of the vaccine

The organization of COVID-19 vaccinations to Americans and the spread of individual defensive equipment compresses supply chains.

Thomas, president of Pilot Freight Services, a freight forwarding service, saw an expansion in dry ice supply in mid-June and demand remained solid during the fall and increased rapidly in the last quarter. Interest in ULT chillers was high in October and there was an 852% increase at the end of the year.
Pilot Freight Services Executive Vice President Pelliccio said the best-selling item is nitrile gloves, so much so that he has to contact manufacturers to get them and that their value continues to increase due to raw material costs.
Pelliccio advises buyers of gloves and other immunization-related PPE and supplies to work with nearby suppliers, with whom they have a deal, and who are aware of the current difficulties of delivery-related equipment shortages.

From the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Corporation, the materials science organization SiO2 and Corning have received awards for expanding the production of vaccine vials due to glass shortages around the world.
In addition, a month ago the Biden organization, to fill the gaps in the offer, decided to resort to the defense production law and therefore made an authoritative request.

A.B. Brown

Supply Chain Dive

The big drop in German exports

German exports plummeted 9.3% last year due to the coronavirus affecting demand, this major and sharp decline has never occurred since the 2009 financial crisis. Despite a 12.5% decline, the states United continues to be the most important source of German imports, bringing goods worth 103.8 billion euros. In second place, with a minimum decrease of 0.1%, China exports goods from Germany to 95.9 billion euros and, with 91 billion euros and a decrease of 14.6%, in third place we find France.

For Germany, the main export destination was China, with a total increase of 5.6% to 116.2 billion euros and compared to the previous year, Germany has an increase in exports of 179.1 billion euros. EUR. In addition, according to statements from the statistical office, exports increased by 2.7% in December compared to the previous year and by 0.1% more than in November.

The Economic Times

Brexit Fund of £ 20m offered to small UK businesses

Due to Brexit, in which the UK left the EU, there was a border break during the first weeks, during which small British businesses had to adapt to new rules and trade relations with the EU and that's why the government offers them a £ 20 million support fund. Additionally, another post-brexit rule change is that UK import controls will begin in April and July. And these initiatives were considered in January, as exports to the EU collapsed.

Indeed, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, half of British exporters to the EU have encountered many difficulties and the costs of importing and exporting have increased dramatically.

The new support fund was welcomed by business leaders but they found that other additional measures needed to be taken to avoid bankruptcy due to bureaucracy and costs that are constantly increasing.

Richard Partington

The Guardian

Western rail service and logistics networks disrupted by winter weather

Due to weekend winter weather in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois State, Wisconsin, and Washington State Rail staff, Union Pacific began closing all on Tuesday morning. the intermodal ports and customers in these bad weather areas have been informed of the delays, of at least 72 hours, that their shipments will suffer and furthermore, bad weather is expected to continue this week.

Even BNSF informed customers of the potential operational impact on its network due to weather conditions and said shipments through Texas and parts of the Gulf Coast are expected to be greatly delayed.

Matt Leonard

Supply Chain Dive

The increase in online delivery costs

Shipping costs have risen and will continue to rise during the COVID-19 health crisis, and that's a bad thing for retailers. Midsize retailers are in particular danger because they compete with fast shipping like Amazon Prime and fail to keep up with the growing demand for deliveries and therefore fail to guarantee consumers free and fast delivery.
As online shopping did not peak during the 2020 holiday season, shipping companies decided to keep the additional holiday costs for a period, to allow it to compensate for financial losses.

Katie Tsai

CNBC

Still high rates for ocean shippers from the Lunar New Year

Fares on the Transpacific route, between China, East Asia and the North American West Coast, have increased by 7% and is a problem for companies because, as consumers continue to buy, they are forced to work in a tight market to stock up. .

Furthermore, according to the Port of Los Angeles forecasts, the volumes of freight to be transported to the West Coast are high and are increasing by nearly 503% yoy in mid-March and this level of imports will remain high at least until the first half. of 2021 and this means that the dockers and the shipping companies will work a lot and for a long time and instead the shippers will have to suffer the increase in costs to be able to refuel.

As with every Lunar New Year, bookings have dropped, but this year the truck capacity has been higher than usual.

Matt Leonard

Supply Chain Dive

FAQ International trade February 2021 News

What is happening in the logistics sector?

At this time of the pandemic many people shop online and as a result, shippers have a lot of work to do and because of the many requests, new rules to be respected, the additional controls of COVID-19 and the climatic conditions that complicate the transport of goods , deliveries are delayed.

How much is the demand for COVID-19 vaccine supplies and equipment expected to increase?

Based on fourth-quarter trends, demand for COVID-19 vaccine supplies and equipment is projected by Thomas, president of Pilot Freight Services, to increase from 30% to 33% during the first quarter of 2021.

What has been the impact of the coronavirus variant on relations between Great Britain and Europe?

As this coronavirus variant originates from Great Britain and is more contagious than COVID-19, in December, continental Europe decided to drastically stop imports and exports with Great Britain.

What would be the best solution for couriers to deal with losses?

Due to the pandemic and the holidays, many couriers have suffered losses and the best solution to combat them is to find other delivery methods other than the traditional one such as, for example, online shopping, in-store collection services, collection at roadside and use of third-party delivery apps.

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