Supply Chain Frustrations Continue to Trouble the Shipping Industry.

COVID-19 has had a far-reaching impact on shipping companies and supply chain managers across the world. The pandemic has left its mark on the shipping industry and has had serious consequences on company sales due to the reliability and punctuality of goods bought by consumers. The entire shipping industry has been in crisis for the better part of a year and remains in damage control, with shipping companies seriously lacking operational capacity. Loading and unloading with a lack of human resources, transit delays and congestion at destination ports are on-going issues. The irregularity of the flow of goods puts pressure on and tests the integrity of, the entire supply chain, causing a crisis at destination terminals and frustrating business owners and consumers alike.

For some companies across Europe, this crisis equates to lost business opportunities, a massive decrease in sales and stressed clients. COVID has also instigated a tariff war where Asia-Europe tariffs doubled, and Asia-US freight rates tripled, making it doubly hard to survive. Shipping companies in Italy are understandably frustrated because when shipping space comes available, very often shipping containers are not and the supply chain suffers.

Over the last year, and particularly between July and September 2020, there was a continuous threat to the integrity of the supply chain. The entire logistics industry fought to regain momentum; however, there are bottlenecks at all levels and in every destination country. Factories and suppliers across the world are feeling the knock-on effect. Many have full warehouses of stock that is piling up, waiting for pick-up and delivery, which means that further production has to stop. Companies such as Avion Freight Forwarding have learnt to monitor the dynamics of the situation and customise increasingly flexible forwarding solutions. The flexibility of our services allows our clients to have faith in our ability to deliver on promises and trust in the level of customer service on offer in spite of the evolving nature of the situation.