Recently Worldwide Logistics Ltd. (WWL) offices in China have reported an uptick in booking volumes. This increase is evident for both US East Coast and US West Coast bound cargos. Willy Fong, WWL’s managing director in Asia, noted, “a number of our traditional customers who had delayed or cancelled orders are now starting to move cargo again.”

While volume increases are modest to date, WWL bookings for the week of April 27 through May 3 were up about 40 percent versus the previous two weeks when they “bottomed out” to a six-week low. It remains to be seen if this trend continues, but it appears that this may well be the case given the breadth of activity from a wide range of customers and broad commodity sectors. It appears that a similar trend is occurring market wide as carrier space shows signs of tightening.

Joe Monaghan, WWL’s chief executive officer, clarified, “the degree to which this tight space situation continues is a function of how soon the carriers react to increased volumes by cutting back on their blank sailing strategies.” The carriers initiated a blank sailing program immediately after the Chinese New Year holiday which is their normal practice. The extension and expansion of these schedule omissions due to the pandemic has been unprecedented.

As always advanced booking is recommended during periods of tight space in order to eliminate or limit cargo delays.

Worldwide Logistics will continue to monitor this situation and keep clients informed.