Delays on trade routes caused by the pandemic are exacerbated by major commercial events such as Black Friday and Christmas. According to Juan Ciudad NGO, the cost increase in recent months has been âŹ300 for every 10 tons of material transported.
After more than a year and a half of the pandemic, half the world is preparing to face the first autumn and winter with a semblance of normal commercial activity. The now-established Black Friday and Christmas are key consumer holidays in the coming months, and some retail organizations have already warned of possible shortages due to the ongoing congestion on maritime transport routes. However, little is said about how this congestion affects the shipment of essential goods. While millions of people wait to buy gifts like clothing or electronics, many others are waiting to access food and basic goods.
When it comes to logistics support services, not everything is scheduled. To carry out our mission, we need order and control over needs as much as possible. In our case, this planning is carried out by the healthcare centers receiving maritime containers, but the current situation, this hackneyed "new post-COVID reality," confronts us with challenges and ways of working that disrupt and complicate our daily routines.
Everything suggests there's still a long way to go before we can put this logistical mess in order. The virus paralyzed our normal lives, industry, commerce, transportation, supplies... No one imagined the consequences, and after many months, we still don't fully realize how deeply it continues to impact us.
The Juan Ciudad NGO's logistics support service organizes donations from San Juan de Dios centers in Spain, businesses, and individuals, and organizes specific collection campaigns from our regional offices. From here, we share materials detailed by our counterparts, the San Juan de Dios health centers in Latin America and Africa, through an annual needs survey that is updated and evaluated after receiving each container at its destination. These materials include specific foods (usually canned), medical supplies (gauze, bandages, diapers), sheets, uniforms, and a long list of other items depending on the specialty of the receiving center. These items cannot be purchased at the destination due to their high cost or scarcity. These items must be selected, packaged, and listed to be loaded from our warehouse into containers rented from shipping companies.
The months of forced transport paralysis have been attempted to recover, and maritime traffic, on which almost all of international trade depends, is attempting to return to normal. However, even today, thousands of containers are still waiting to be shipped in ports in China, the US, and Europe. These containers are still waiting to be unloaded, emptied, and reloaded for other destinations. All of this directly affects the shipments prepared biweekly and scheduled and budgeted annually by Juan Ciudad ONGD.
The figures provide an idea of how the situation has changed compared to 2019. Booking a vessel bound for Latin America has been delayed by an average of three weeks, compared to eight days before 2020 to organize the entire process and set a loading date at our warehouse. If the destination is Africa, the timeframe is already shortening to two weeks. And, as expected, this situation also affects prices. Maritime transport costs have reached record levels, and while the upward trend has been slowing for just under a month, we don't expect a drop in costs until the first quarter of next year, when commercial traffic decreases after Christmas.
In the specific case of Juan Ciudad NGO, the average increase in shipping costs is âŹ300 per 10,000 kilos. Those 3 cents more per kilo transported may seem insignificant, but they represent a real economic challenge in the monthly shopping basket of a European citizen, let alone products from Asian bazaars. Imagine the impact this has when the transported products are donated and essential to institutions that serve vulnerable populations. Annually, Juan Ciudad NGO sends approximately 15 containers to seven countries. 120,000 kg of solidarity, worth approximately âŹ400,000, which is of great concern to those who value the importance of these shipments from the 13 receiving centers for these shipments, for which we hope their transport will one day be normalized. We therefore face new challenges as an organization, for which we will continue to seek solutions to deliver the most necessary items to those who need them most.
