The Chinese New Year public holiday period will lead to disruption throughout certain Asian markets and other public holidays will cause delays in the next few weeks.

Keeping you up to date with our business and industry news as we continue to operate around the globe.

Macro Update:

Chinese New Year (CNY) or Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year is one of the most significant Chinese celebrations and is observed through a seven-day public holiday in China (January 21-27, 2023), traditional activities begin as early as three weeks before the eve of the holiday and can last for two weeks past the official end date. Almost everything shuts down which in turn creates big disruptions for the industry. Expect bottlenecks due to orders flooding in before the Lunar New Year and heavy delays can be experienced with goods exported from, as well as imported into, the countries that acknowledge the holiday. Both the Atlantic and Gulf regions are expected to experience higher than normal volumes as a result.

The following public holidays may lead to delays in the processing and delivery of your shipments to the following countries: 

• 21/01 - 27/01: China - Chinese New Year 
• 21/01 - 27/01: Taiwan - Chinese New Year 
• 22/01 - 24/01: Singapore: Chinese New Year 
• 22/01 - 25/01: Hong Kong: Lunar New Year 
• 26/01: Australia - Australia Day 
• 11/02: Japan - National Foundation Day

Service Updates:

Australia & New Zealand

While flooded roads continue to affect postal services between Croydon and Karumba, delivery services have resumed to some areas between Cairns and Croydon. Affected postcodes include 4890, 4891 and 4892. 

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Direct injection International services at this time: No delays

Australia Post

Due to road closures on the Bruce Highway, there will be delivery delays of up to 4 days for Parcel Post and mail items between Townsville and Cairns. Affected postcodes include 4737-4895. There are also delays to StarTrack Road Express between Rockhampton, Mackay, Emerald, Townsville and Cairns.

Aramex: 

Services are affected in Adelaide, Capricorn Coast, Geelong, Melbourne, Townsville and Wollongong. Read more about Aramex disruptions here.

New Zealand Post: 

Due to resourcing challenges there is a delay of 1 working day to deliveries in the Waikato region.

Asia

Chinese New Year and Spring festival will lead to business closures as the region observes the public holiday. Expect disruption leading up to, during and after the period.

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Direct injection International services at this time: No delays

US & Canada

Fulfillment services: Remain unaffected by delays and same day dispatch is being met as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Shipping services: Operational and as per SLAs.

UK

FedEx:

Due to the runway closure at Stansted Airport (UK), we are adjusting our regular service schedules on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for both FedEx and TNT international inbound shipments to minimize the impact on our customers. Stansted Airport will be closing their runway overnight for resurfacing works from 8 January to 25 March 2023. We have contingency plans in place to minimize disruption to our operations over this period, which include: 

• Areas of the South East of England will not receive early morning or noon deliveries. End of day delivery commitment remains. 
• Areas of Dublin, Ireland will not receive early morning or noon deliveries. End of day delivery commitment remains

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

International from the UK: We are seeing slight delays for DDU, not DDP deliveries, where there is an IOSS number. Average delivery times of 5-8 day are now taking 8-11 days. We encourage all customers to have their IOSS number as this helps with improving the clearance process to deliver into the EU.

EU

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Freight Forwarding Update:

Sea freight - Asia to north America

We’ve seen a slight drop in pricing for LCL and FCL, however rates are still elevated. 

Space: We continue to experience space issues with most carriers

Booking: We recommend booking well and truly in advance (5-6 weeks), we cannot guarantee that the space will always be available.

Sea Freight - Asia- Europe

Rates are still at record highs, although they have gone down slightly. 

Space: Continues to be a concern

Booking: We recommend booking well and truly in advance (5-6 weeks).

Sea Freight - Asia - Australia

Pricing is still relatively elevated.

Space: Continues to be a concern

Booking: We recommend booking in advance (4-5 weeks).

Air freight

COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to impact services and limit capacities globally.

Direct injection

B360 has its own Direct Injection network that runs from Sydney to the US, Hong Kong to Europe, Hong Kong to Australia and Hong Kong to the US. These channels are still very reliable, with transit times on average being 4-8 days, we see no changes as per the SLAs at this time.

To learn more about any of our updates or to make carrier changes, please reach out to us today.