80,000 containers are piled up! Ports are jammed, and goods may be delayed until the Spring Festival

The topic of cross-border e-commerce logistics has become increasingly popular, and port congestion still exists despite the price increase. Currently, many US ports are congested, with 80,000 containers piled up at ports. This has exacerbated the dilemma of congestion at sea, and some sellers even said that they will have to wait until the Spring Festival to ship goods, which means that sellers are likely to miss the peak season sales. Some sellers are preparing for the peak season and continue to clear their backlogs, but they have been judged as fraud by Amazon...

80,000 containers backlogged, serious congestion at US ports

The increase in shipping prices and Amazon's storage capacity restrictions have exacerbated the already difficult logistics problems. It is reported that the Port of Savannah, the third largest container port in the United States , has a serious backlog of goods. Currently , there are 80,000 containers piled up at the port, half more than before .

This undoubtedly increases the difficulty for sellers to replenish stocks during the peak season. Not only will the goods be delayed, but sellers may also incur additional fees due to reasons such as no one picking up the goods at the destination port, which in turn leads to corresponding cost increases.

According to the Port Authority, container detention has become the norm, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand containers, with detention periods ranging from two to three weeks to more than a month. It is common for cargo ships to stay in the port for more than a week.

In fact, this "traffic jam" is not only happening at the Port of Savannah. More than 50 cargo ships were stranded at the Port of Los Angeles in the United States last week , and dozens of ships were also stranded at the Port of New York. Under such circumstances, many sellers are worried about whether their products can be delivered to the warehouse and put on the shelves in time for the upcoming Christmas.

The problem of American ports is thorny, and the problem of European ports should not be underestimated. It is understood that the main European port of Felixstowe is blocked and filled with unclaimed container cargo, and the terminal has begun to refuse to return empty containers. Especially in Northern Europe, there is a serious shortage of heavy truck drivers in the UK , which has caused the container stay time to be greatly extended, and even major ports are facing the risk of complete shutdown.

At the same time, the Port of Vancouver, Canada's main ocean gateway, was experiencing severe congestion. The surge in imports before the peak season caused warehouses to be overwhelmed and boxes to pile up at the docks. Coupled with the shortage of transshipment trucks, the severe congestion has caused many sellers to worry.

The Canadian ports are also congested! Will the products shipped now be available for sale during the Spring Festival?

As a major port in Canada, the severe congestion in the Port of Vancouver has not been alleviated. The efficiency of ship berthing, unloading and picking up containers has dropped significantly, and the current transportation demand cannot be met. A large number of goods are stranded at the port, which makes sellers who are actively preparing for the peak season feel uneasy.

According to the freight forwarder, the total delivery time in Canada is currently delayed by approximately 15-30 days, and many goods shipped to Canadian warehouses have been delayed recently.

A seller who ships to Canada reported that there has been no news on the goods he sent out several months ago. The freight forwarder replied that the goods have now arrived at the Port of Vancouver, but because there are too many imported goods at the port, the port is becoming increasingly congested and the warehouse is "packed", so it is impossible to schedule a delivery time.

According to foreign media reports, the import volume surged before the holidays this year, and the warehouses in the region were overwhelmed and overflowed. A large number of boxes were piled up on the docks, and trucks could not be booked normally. Not only that, in terms of express delivery, due to insufficient UPS capacity, large quantities of goods were piled up at UPS processing stations, causing serious cargo detention problems.

After the power cut order was issued some time ago, sellers at a Canadian site said that their stores suddenly had unlimited storage capacity. Practitioners speculated that Amazon's move was to encourage sellers at the site to actively ship goods. However, considering the current shipping situation, the actual situation is not optimistic . The delivery of packages on "Black Friday" and Christmas Eve is likely to be delayed and timely delivery cannot be guaranteed.

Warehouse explosions, goods being held up, time delays ... For sellers who have plans to ship goods in the near future, this series of situations seem to foreshadow the difficulties of this year's peak season. In response to this situation, one seller helplessly joked: "The land is vast and sparsely populated, and manpower is tight; the impact of the epidemic has made things worse; the port is congested and there is no hope; wanting to enter the warehouse is wishful thinking."

The port congestion problem is still before us, which has a great impact on sellers in Canada who are preparing for the peak season. One practitioner said: "According to the current congestion situation at the Port of Vancouver, the goods shipped recently may not be available until around the Spring Festival."

Now, the peak season is about to begin. The problem of goods not being able to be put on the shelves in time is indeed a difficult one, but the problem of storage capacity limitation is also a headache for sellers. In order to better prepare goods for delivery, some sellers have to embark on the road of clearing inventory one after another, but this road is not easy to take ...

The seller was found to be a fraud when clearing inventory, resulting in the account being unable to log in

As the peak season enters the countdown, many sellers are troubled by problems such as inventory retention and storage capacity restrictions. Some sellers have to speed up the clearance of inventory. However, this road is full of thorns and you will step into the pit if you are not careful ...

Recently, a seller said that two of his stores were judged to be fraudulent by Amazon due to recent inventory clearance, resulting in the inability to log in to the account and open cases.

The seller revealed that there was no connection between the two stores, and they had found three or four service providers to clear their inventory, so it was not known whether the fraud was related to the operation of the service provider. In response to this situation, sellers who had the same experience said that if the account could not be logged in, it was likely that it had been cancelled.

"There are still many hidden dangers in clearing inventory online. Many problems with inventory clearing accounts are caused by non-compliant operations of the service providers." Industry insiders said that some service providers will let sellers raise the price to the point where the marginal price is prohibited from being displayed before placing an order, and then ask the sellers to return about 60% of the commission. However, after a period of time, they will cancel the previous orders and apply for a refund. The seller's account is likely to be judged as fraud by Amazon.

Under the heavy blow of Amazon, sellers have a growing need to clear their inventory, and even many big sellers have joined the ranks of low-price clearance sales. Inventory redundancy is what sellers least want to face. In the industry, sellers seem to have reached a consensus on clearing inventory in a timely manner. Some sellers said that from a certain perspective, if inventory is "bottoming out", then clearing inventory can help many sellers "bounce back from the bottom" faster.

Although sufficient inventory is an important prerequisite for preparing goods for shipment during the peak season, it must be said that clearing inventory does carry hidden risks. The peak season is approaching, and the security of the account is above all else. At this critical moment, sellers should still act with caution and not cross the red line due to carelessness.

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