Supply chain challenges in both the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are having an impact on global trade, but the impact on cargo rates and the seafood industry is still less than it was during the heights of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A panel of experts, speaking during the Global Seafood Market Conference in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., said the ongoing struggles for both pivotal trade routes have had a lower impact on the container industry than what happened during the pandemic, when high material and transport rates caused costs to jump.
The Panama Canal has been affected by low water levels that have reduced the amount of container traffic the canal can handle, driving some shipping companies to detour around South America.
According to William Duggan of Eskesen Advisory – a supply chain expert with over three decades of experience in logistics, including a stint at Maersk – the impacts on the canal have been minimized for the seafood industry as container ships are still able to make the journey through the canal.
“The vessels with tanks and product vessels are going around Chile and Argentina, where the container ships are still going through, but they have to significantly reduce their [loads] by about a third,” Duggan said. “The massive container ships, they have to reduce somewhere around 2,000 containers off the ship.”
What’s happening, Duggan said, is those ships that need to ...
Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource
