Oversized airfreight for Airbus subsidiary

Six DACHSER theses on supply chains in transition

Not only are digitalization, climate change, and new geopolitical courses creating challenges for policymakers, the economy, and society, they are also redefining the role of logistics. Here are six ways that DACHSER believes current transformations are affecting global supply chains.

Lunar New Year 2024 – Key dates and impact on logistics

The Lunar New Year for the beginning of the "Year of the Dragon" takes place on 10 February 2024 and is the biggest festival in Chinese communities where people celebrate the start of a new year with their families.

Chinese New Year: Impact on logistics

In 2021, Chinese New Year falls on February 12, it is the biggest festival in China where people celebrate the beginning of a new year with their families. The week-long national public holiday has consequences on global supply chains. 

The following information provides an overview of some key facts of the festival and its possible impacts on logistics.

Dates and key facts

• February 12, 2021 marks the start of the Chinese New Year (the year of Ox).
• Chinese national holiday begins on February 11 and ends on February 17, meaning that most of the businesses, including DACHSER branches in China, will be closed and resumes on February 18.
• Factories and manufacturing sites used to be closed for a longer period of time. Production might pause already one week before Chinese New Year, some factories will only resume one month after.
• The long holiday allows workers in the city to travel back to their hometown for a family reunion, though it might not be the case this year due to the pandemic.

Impact on supply chain

• Extensive holidays in China can lead to delays to your shipments for up to one month.
• Due to the abovementioned closing period of manufacturing industries, there will be no productions from China for at least a week. Even though factories will be restarting gradually, operations will not resume to full swing immediately.
• Productions from other countries in Asia will also be impacted as some parts might come from China or the assembling processes are done there.
• Most shippers will stock up inventories that are sufficient to cover the Chinese New Year period, this leads to a pre-holiday cargo rush; it will also take some time after the festival to normalize the market conditions.

To avoid unnecessary price hikes and delays, it is strongly recommended to place bookings well in advance. At DACHSER, our logistics experts can help you to plan together. Feel free to discuss with us about your needs and we can work out the best to maintain your supply chain uninterrupted throughout the Chinese New Year.

Current situation in India and the impact on DACHSER’s operations

Regarding the current situation in India, we would like to give an update about DACHSER’s operations in India. The situation as of today, April 28, 2021, is as follows:

Most branch offices across India are being kept closed as a precautionary measure due to the sudden rise of COVID cases. Our teams are working from home, with only skeletal staff at the offices and hence there are likely to be delays in responses due to the ongoing crisis. As a consequence of the lockdown, there are some operational impacts for air, sea, customs clearance and domestic trucking.

Air Freight:

• Most countries have barred passenger traffic from India leading to no passenger carrying flights operating on International routes from/to India
• This has created some additional constraint on already stressed space availability situation
• Rates are bound to inch upwards for all sectors
• Transit times too have increased as a consequence of capacity crunch

Sea Freight:

• Sea freight was already facing the challenges due to the Suez Canal blockage end of March.
• Ports and terminals are functioning normally, but vessel schedules are impacted by the Suez Canal blockage as well as the sudden rise of COVID cases in India.Therefore delays are expected. Customers are advised to factor in delays of 1-2 weeks while planning their inventories.
• We expect more delays in communication or operations due to increasing COVID infections among staff at ports, customs, CFS and shipping lines.

Customs:

• We do not have any unexpected disruptions in cargo movement in India, nor is any work stoppage expected at present.
• Customs clearance activities are functional at the movement.
• Customs is working with less manpower, no Customs Brokers is allowed to meet the customs officials, all processes is done faceless and things are moving in slow phase.

At DACHSER, we have undertaken significant measures to ensure our employees’ health and safety, at the same time continue to manage our day-to-day operations with minimal impact to our customers’ supply chains. Our teams are working diligently by all possible means in these testing times to assist and to overcome the challenges being faced.

Please rest assured that we will keep you updated of any changes to the current situation. In case of questions, please feel free to contact your local DACHSER representative in the region.