Extreme weather hits Europe and the United States, and some Amazon warehouses are closed!

Many places in China, such as Guangdong, have entered the quick-freeze mode, and many European and American countries are no exception. Due to the influence of extreme weather in some parts of the United States, the current situation of Amazon warehouse delivery has been aggravated. Some Amazon warehouses have been temporarily closed, and the tail-end delivery may be delayed; many European countries were hit by the 11-level super storm "Eunice", and flights and ports were severely damaged.

Some Amazon warehouses are closed, and end-of-line delivery may be delayed

According to U.S. media reports, many areas in the United States have been hit by winter storms recently. Express delivery companies such as UPS, FedEx and USPS have issued warnings, stating that there will be delays in tail-end delivery due to the snowstorm, and this situation is expected to continue until this weekend.

In addition, foreign media reported that some Amazon warehouses have been temporarily closed due to the snowstorm. Warehouses in the West and East of the United States and Northern California have been severely affected. LAX9 will be delayed by 5-7 days, and some warehouses will even be delayed for half a month. Among them, Amazon's SMF3 warehouse is seriously overwhelmed, and the delivery queue has been lined up at the highway intersection. Some appointments have been postponed to after March.

At the same time, the situation in European countries is not optimistic. Since February 18, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and other regions have been hit by the Category 11 super storm "Eunice", with wind speeds reaching 160 kilometers per hour.

According to incomplete statistics, after Storm Eunice, about 155,000 users in southern and eastern England and Wales still had power outages . At the same time, new yellow weather warnings were issued across the UK, indicating that the storm was moving towards countries such as Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

Eunice caused serious damage to British roads, hundreds of flights were canceled, the Port of Dover in the English Channel was forced to close, and passenger and freight vehicles from the UK to various European countries were forced to stop; more than 40 flights were canceled at Dublin Airport in Ireland, some flights were delayed, and ferry services were temporarily interrupted...

The strongest storm hit many European countries, affecting a large number of goods

The extreme weather has had a wide impact, and the logistics and transportation of cross-border sellers have also been delayed. A seller who has already shipped goods said that the freight forwarder has given the news that the containers that docked at the port last Friday and the weekend will most likely be delayed in unloading and picking up the containers, and the containers that have not docked at the port are expected to be delayed in docking.

The European Port of Rotterdam and the UK Port of Felixstowe are still affected by strong winds. Some freight forwarders said that container unloading will be delayed, all ports will be closed from the weekend to Monday, and all port operations will be stopped. The specific resumption time will be notified separately.

The Category 11 storm hit several European countries including Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom . As the strongest storm in the UK in nearly 30 years, "Eunice" has caused 16 deaths, hundreds of thousands of households without power, and hundreds of flights were canceled , with the transportation sector suffering a great impact.

According to relevant reports, on February 18, local time, a container ship sailing from Bremerhaven , Germany to Rotterdam , the Netherlands was suspected to have been attacked by "Eunice" on the way . A large number of containers on the ship collapsed and more than 26 containers fell into the sea.

It is worth mentioning that this container ship currently serves the 2M Alliance's well-known Asia-Europe route AE1, and most of the cargo on board comes from Chinese ports. Therefore, freight forwarders and sellers who have recently shipped goods to Europe should pay attention and contact the shipping company in time to inquire about the current status of the goods.

Many European and American countries have been hit by extremely bad weather. Although it is an uncontrollable factor, it is inevitable that cross-border sellers will suffer losses. In response, eBay said it will provide support and protection for sellers.

Recently, eBay released an announcement stating that the platform is closely monitoring the storms in the Midwest, South, and East of the United States. Severe weather may have a certain impact on the pickup and delivery of sellers' goods. eBay is also providing support and protection to minimize the impact on sellers' businesses as much as possible. In addition, eBay will delete all related negative and neutral feedback , and it will not affect the seller's service indicator rating.

Port congestion eased?

For sellers, repeated rounds of the epidemic have caused freight rates to soar. Port congestion, container shortages and cabin shortages have already caused headaches for many foreign trade people. Coupled with the continuous invasion of extreme weather, people are really complaining.

As for the current situation, although the port congestion in some parts of Asia has eased to a certain extent, the congestion in North America is still not optimistic and is continuing to escalate. The congestion at ports on the West Coast and East Coast has reached a new historical high in the past week.

As sellers prepare goods for Amazon and overseas warehouses, it is expected that the number of ships waiting to be shipped from Asia to North America will increase significantly in March and April. Compared with the data on waiting ships before the epidemic, the increase is likely to exceed 40%.

In addition , at the beginning of 2022, the new coronavirus variant broke out in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with the illness rate among dock workers as high as 67%. This led to a large-scale shortage of labor at port terminals and warehouses, slowed down container unloading, and aggravated port congestion.

Since 2021, when it comes to shipping, the first words that come to mind for sellers are "lack of containers", "port congestion" and "sea freight". However, just as 2022 began, an epidemic broke out in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and most dock workers were infected, which once again added uncertainty to port work. Charlotte Cook, chief trade analyst at VesselsValue, said that the backlog of ships will continue at least until the second quarter of this year.

Some industry insiders believe that Charlotte Cook's forecast shows two points. First, the decline in freight rates is only temporary. Second, port congestion will continue until the first half of this year . However, at present, the epidemic is one of the main factors affecting the supply chain. Therefore, the key to whether port congestion can be alleviated in the second half of the year lies in whether the epidemic can be controlled.

With the continued existence of problems such as port congestion, many industry insiders predict that freight rates may continue to remain high. Port congestion, supply chain disruptions and high shipping costs are problems that plague many cross-border sellers.

In order to help Chinese manufacturing go global, China has also introduced a series of corresponding policies. It is understood that specific measures include investigating antitrust, cracking down on high freight rates, strengthening supervision in the field of shipping, increasing financial support for various companies to build and use overseas warehouses, and encouraging foreign trade companies to directly connect with shipping companies.

The corresponding policies introduced by the country to stabilize the development of foreign trade have dispelled the doubts of many cross-border people. All cross-border people can pay more attention to domestic policies and arrange shipments reasonably to cope with problems such as rising freight rates and port congestion.

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