“In Ireland, while some sectors of the national economy are shut, particularly those related to retail, tourism and leisure, others such as food, pharma, and medical devices manufacturing need to ramp up production rapidly to satisfy the requirements of their customers at home and abroad. Consequently, several supply chain and logistical imbalances are emerging that we will need to address as a country as a matter of urgency before they escalate and amplify.
For instance, some importers have been unable to take new stock into their warehouses and consequently full inbound containers are now starting to accumulate and back-up in some of our major freight ports. The knock-on consequences of this situation are multiple and include the following:
Cost implication for the importers who will incur demurrage charges levied by the ports.
Congestion at the ports that will slow up the flow-through of other inbound imports that are urgently required by manufacturers and distributors who need these inventories to satisfy current high demand.
A growing shortage of empty containers for export that manufacturers in Ireland need to satisfy export orders for their overseas customers.
Additionally, as China now emerge from their coronavirus crisis, they are ramping up production again and it is reported that their outbound capability is back to about 90% of the pre-crisis levels. As a result, many container shipments leaving China now will be arriving at Irish ports from about mid-April. This has the potential to exacerbate the issue if creative solutions are not implemented to de-congest the Irish ports in time.
I have been made aware of a number of service providers who are looking to respond to this situation by pulling out all the stops to bring on line, high-quality, temporary warehouse capacity, suitable for all types of goods and materials. This capacity can be in place within a matter of weeks with the collaboration of all stakeholders including local authorities, service providers, landowners and investors and much good work is already underway on this.
If you are experiencing difficulties finding storage capacity and logistical solutions for your current or anticipated inbound inventories of products or materials, please do let me know as soon as possible and I will be happy to make the connections for you. You can contact me directly on 086 811 6030 or pdaly@albalogistics.com at any time.”
Patrick Daly, Alba Consulting
Photo: Collett Transport