Posted on March 19, 2020
The outbreak of COVID-19, which caused numerous Chinese factories to halt production and shut down earlier this year, has led to about a 20% year-over-year drop in shipping volume at the Port of Savannah during the first two weeks of March.
“We’re about 20% below last March for the first two weeks of the month, so we still have to see how that’s going to shape up, but we feel like there’s some positives out there,” GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch said Tuesday, March 17.
“We’re hearing from our contacts in China that they’re slowly but surely returning to normal. At one time they were at 40% to 50% normal opts and now there at about 80% to 85%, so we feel good about that.”
Lynch said he expects March to be a challenging month, followed by a slow start to April, but is hopeful the numbers will begin to ramp and be back to normal by mid-April. For now things are operating as usual.
“Trucks are moving, ships are working, rail is moving containers and everybody is at work,” he said.
Lynch said because of the Chinese New Year, this time tends to be on the slower side with many ocean carrier customers implementing what are known as blank sailings and postponing or suspending vessel operations during what is already a slow time of year.
“We never want to see anything like this happen, but if something like this was going to happen in China, it probably happened at the right time when we weren’t in the midst of our peak season,” he said.
Between last week and early April, Lynch said the GPA expects 30 voided sailings, which is more than normal.
“That’s obviously because of the virus and the lack of activity there, but all those services will start returning in four weeks time. Most of them will be back in operation around that time period.”
On the job front, Lynch said there had been no layoffs and the organization viewed the saturation as a “blip.” While hourly workers are guaranteed 40 per week, Lynch said those workers could see less overtime for a number of weeks due to the drop in shipping volume.
“We’ll work through it with our team and we’ll come out of it as an organization that continues to do our best to service customers,” he said.
Lynch said the GPA has implemented some changes to the business to allow for social distancing and on Monday, March 16, the GPA announced that they have postponed all in-person meetings until further notice and suspended travel for port employees, port tours and non-essential visitors.
Lynch praised the maritime community for their efforts during this time, including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the International Longshoremen’s Association.
“The leadership in the maritime industry has really come together much like we have in the past with hurricane-type stuff; everybody’s working together, there’s good dialogue, there’s good communication and we appreciate everybody coming to work to keep the ports operational,” he said
“We have a greater mission here and that’s to service the communities in and around us and beyond and to make sure the goods get to the store shelves and that’s got to be our focus.”
Source: savannahnow
