8 October 2002
Thailand Asian manufacturers have been told by global shipping companies that they will temporarily stop taking outbound bookings next week for cargoes to US west coast ports, where a labour dispute has entered its second week. Maersk Sealand and P&O Nedlloyd said they would start rejecting local outbound bookings for the ports on Monday, in line with their parent firms' decisions.
Suwat Asavathongkul, chairman of the Bangkok Shipowners and Agents Association (BSAA), said scores of carriers would temporarily suspend their services on the routes if the US port shutdown prolonged. He said each local shipping line was estimated to have a backlog of scheduled outbound cargo for the US west coast of between 500 and 1,000 forty-foot equivalent units (FEU).
P&O Nedlloyd is crying foul at the closure of 29 ports due to the dispute, saying its two ships carrying a combined 500 containers had been stranded off the coast and unable to dock. Mr Suwat, who is also managing director of P&O Nedlloyd, said that at least 500 more outbound containers were awaiting shipment from Thailand. Starting on Monday, he said, the company would not take any new bookings until its existing backlog was cleared.
The Bangkok branch of Maersk, meanwhile, said its two ships carrying 700 containers of frozen shrimps and refrigerated food were stuck on the western seaboard unable to deliver goods. "Our waiting list for outbound bookings is up to 1,500 FEU _ and the amount is expected to rise further,'' said a local Maersk executive.
Outbound traffic from Thailand to US west coast ports averages between 2,500 and 3,000 FEU weekly. Maersk Sealand handles 16% of total volume. The impact of the shutdown was widening as other strategic ports throughout Pacific nations faced their own backlog problems, the executive said. Air freight costs in Singapore have shot up by as much as 70%, driven by a scramble to use air transport to ferry goods to the United States.
