OCEAN MARKET UPDATE

TOC LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC. would like to provide the following ocean market update regarding the European Low Water situation:

While the Low Water conditions from 2018, previously advised in November 2018, improved over the Christmas and New Year season, the actual winter/spring 2019 rain and snowfall in Europe was far below normal, thus causing the Low Water situation to again impact European Supply Chains, presently.

Low Water conditions cause barges, that normally shuttle containers from inland to ocean ports, to reduce vessel capacity in order to raise or reduce the draft levels of the vessels so as not to “ground” themselves on the riverbeds. The busiest ocean ports that receive these river barge moves are primarily Hamburg, Antwerp and Rotterdam; therefore EU export containers risk experiencing significant congestion pileups along the inland waterways because fewer containers are boarding the river barges, AND EU import containers start piling up at the sea ports for the same reason.

This puts a strain on the truck and chassis market in Europe, where exporters and importers attempt to divert containers via ground and rail, in a market that already has the trucking community in Europe operating at greater than 100% capacity.

TOC Logistics has just received notification from vessel carriers of the implementation of Low Water Surcharges, effective April 24, 2019. Unfortunately, TOC cannot provide a “price list” for the surcharges because the vessel carriers do not universally apply the charges using universal methods. Plus, Low Water surcharges are applied variably based on the recorded water levels on any given week.

Please accept this as official notice to TOC Logistics customers, that Low Water surcharges, as a pass-through line item, may begin showing up on our invoices at any time; and diversions and diversion costs (truck/rail/transloads) may be required to minimize delays and keep supply chains flowing.

Please communicate closely and often with your account manager(s) and/or assigned operations representative to maintain awareness of how the Low Water conditions are affecting your supply chain and what arrangements need to be made to reduce the impact to your business, financially.

Thank you for allowing TOC Logistics to serve you.

Click here to download a PDF with more information.