The current disruption to cargo has surpassed March’s Suez Canal disaster. What does this mean for the shipping industry, businesses and consumers?

Well, be prepared for weeks on end of delays – and that’s just the beginning of this supply chain nightmare.

Amazon Prime Day is coming up next week and it’s the biggest day of the year for the online retail giant.

As consumers increasingly turn to online retail, are freighting companies keeping up with demand?

Why are freight companies under stress?

In the wake of one of China’s busiest shipping ports closing down last month due to a COVID-outbreak, freighting companies find themselves at breaking point.

With the industry just getting back on its feet following the Suez Canal blockage, experts are concerned that this latest delay will have even more significant consequences.

China’s Yantian Port says it will be back to normal by late June, but it may be months before the cargo backlog clears and the global ripple effects subdue.

AP Moller MARSK is the world’s number one container carrier and says “the trend is concerning, and unceasing congestion is becoming a worrying problem.”

Ocean strategy company Flexport also shares these concerns, believing the congestion will take six to eight weeks to settle.

This is of particular concern because it extends disruptions into the peak Christmas and holiday seasons, as retailers and importers ramp up their shipments.

Maritime expert Alison Cusack says the knock-on effects from this delay are enormous and consumers will feel the pinch.

When will we see the shipping sector return to normal?

Well, don’t hold you breath. Cusack says at least 2022… “If we’re lucky”

What does increased cost of cargo mean for me?

Experts are warning that consumers may begin to feel the pinch from rising shipping costs, as the price of transporting goods by sea skyrockets.

Recetn figures show the transportation of a 40-foot steel container ship between Shanghai and Rotterdam now costs over $10,000, that’s a huge 547 percent increase on the average price.

Around 80 percent of the world’s goods are transported by ships, meaning the costs will be largely unavoidable for both consumers and businesses

Toy importer, Gary Grant says “during 40 years in toy retailing he has never known such challenging conditions from the point of view of pricing.”

It’s believed the rise in costs is associated with a number of factors, from soaring demand to a shortage of containers, busy ports and a limited workforce.

The disruption to the shipping industry could lead to shortages in the lead up to Christmas.

An outbreak of Covid-19 in a province in southern China is causing congestion at the region’s ports.

Shipments have now been delayed… adding to the tensions within global supply chains, the knock-on effects could take many months to resolve.

This is the latest in a series of severe setbacks for the industry and experts says that problems in just one region can have ripple effects around the world for several months.

The cost of cargo mishaps on the environment

Two weeks ago, a chemical-laden cargo ship sunk off the coast of Sri Lanka amid fears of a major environmental disaster.

Hundreds of tonnes of engine oil possibly leaked into the sea, with a devastating impact on marine life.

Sri Lankan and India worked together to put out the fire and prevent the ship from breaking up and sinking.

X-Press Shipping – the Singapore based company which owns the vessel – confirmed the crew had been aware of the leak, but say they were denied permission by both Qatar and India to leave the ship there before the fire broke out.

The fact that Sri Lanka allowed the vessel to enter the country’s waters after it was rejected by two other nations has led to widespread public anger.

Multiple organisations, such as banks and airlines were hit with a global cloud platform outage on Thursday, due to a US-based tech provider Akamai being down.

The ANZ, Bank of Melbourne, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank, and Bank West had all reported system issues with their mobile banking apps.

Users had been served with error messages while attempting to log in.

Commonwealth Bank earlier advised its customers they are investigating, so did other major banks.

Airlines offline

There had also been reports that several other websites, including Virgin Australia, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, American Air and Delta Airlines have gone offline.

Allianz Insurance and CMC Markets are affected. ME Bank also reported “server issues”.

Australian website tracker DownDetector displayed an upsurge in access complaints across several major websites around 2:10pm

Ticker News can confirm Telstra and NAB have not been impacted by this outage, despite reports from Down Detector.

The issue was believed to be linked to problems occurring with CDN provider Akamai.

Sites are now coming back online.

Telstra, Australia’s biggest telco is expanding its footprint in the media broadcasting world

[Telstra] – Telstra Broadcast Services will broadcast some of the world’s biggest events to more parts of the globe and play a key role in delivering 24/7 programming to millions of people with the acquisition of the business and assets of MediaCloud Pty Ltd.

The acquisition of MediaCloud will provide TBS with a suite of significant software-defined and cloud-based capabilities, media cloud delivery experts and a London Master Control Room, that is equipped with the capability to support major global companies and events.

The addition of MediaCloud capabilities to TBS’s Professional Media portfolio will enable it to offer:

• Managed Streaming – a complete as-a-service offering that enables broadcasters to specify, launch and monitor over-the-top services with minimal resources while maintaining broadcast-grade SLAs.
• Internet Delivery – the ability to deliver high-quality video content and live broadcast streams including HD, SD and Ultra HD to any registered destination point, across the public internet. It is expected that this internet delivery capability will form a new entry-level tier of services, the Telstra Internet Delivery Network, available to broadcasters and media companies wishing to use TBS’s global networks but not requiring the premium service level agreements offered by its current solutions.
• Media Management and Content Orchestration – a fully managed, or platform-as-a-service offering, providing media asset management, content orchestration of complex media workflows and localisation. This will also include the ability to import, manage and preview video, audio and subtitle assets, along with various transmission schedules.
• Playout – a fully managed 24/7 service for the creation of broadcast-grade linear and complex television channels.

As part of the acquisition, Australian free-to-air TV channel SBS has renewed its playout contract for MediaCloud services for seven years. This means everything from SBS News to the latest primetime show will be assembled and played out via TBS. 

Darren Farnham, SBS Acting Chief Technology Officer said, “We’re pleased to have extended our agreement for MediaCloud services with the backing of Telstra, and to continue delivering SBS’s unique content to audiences on their device of choice.” 

Head of Telstra Broadcast Services Andreas Eriksson said that the addition of the MediaCloud platform will provide broadcasters with incredible flexibility to manage their content offerings through virtual environments.

“The global media industry is expanding to cloud-enabled and software-defined capabilities. Adding these leading new capabilities alongside TBS’s existing global fibre and satellite networks sets us up to meet the evolving needs of the broadcast market as well as expand our value proposition to our global client base by providing a world-class broadcast operations in London.”

The MediaCloud acquisition is the latest offering from TBS, following recent expansion into new regions, as well as new advancements and partnerships to its Telstra Global Media Network.