Shipper reports that the global shipping industry is seeing a gradual recovery in Chinese mainland operations as the Chinese epidemic continues to improve.
France's CMA-CGM said on March 9 that its staff in northern China could work remotely or at an appropriate distance from the office and that staff in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and the Yangtze River region would also start working remotely.
The company said in a statement that manufacturing and logistics activities had resumed at its main ports and that normal production and operation levels had been restored. Trucks were in place to speed up the transportation and digestion of the backlog of goods, which also allowed the company to restore container capacity.
Ocean Network Shipping, which integrates shipping services from Japan's three major shipping lines (Japan mail, Mitsui and Kawasaki) , said in a statement that it had set up a task force to ensure the safety of customers, employees and business during the outbreak. As of March 5, its 17 offices in the country were open and began taking all shipping orders in and out of the province, including Wuhan.
APL, one of the world's top 10 container shipping companies, also announced on March 9 that the company's operations in China's major coastal ports have resumed normal freight normal container business resumed. Report
Deutsche Post Dunham reports results for 2019
On March 10th the German Post Dunham Group (DHL ) reported good results for 2019. In 2019, DHL's revenue grew 2.9% to $63.3 billion, with revenue growth across all five divisions. EBITDA rose 30.6 per cent to a record $4.1 BN. In 2019, the German postal and parcels department delivered a record 1.6 billion parcels, up 5.9 percent year-on-year. Dhl Express maintained double-digit profit margins express revenue rose 5.9 percent to 17.1 billion euros revenue growth in all regions. Driven by international time delivery (TDI) business, daily shipments rose 5.7 per cent year-on-year to more than 1M units.
But DHL said it remained cautious about the outlook for 2020 as the global crisis continues to affect international trade and could not yet estimate the impact of the pandemic on 2020 revenues. DHL said on February 28th that its package and supply chain operations had been less affected by the outbreak, which hit cross-border express and freight traffic, as operating profit fell by $60m-$70m in February. DHL expects an operating profit of 5 billion euros for 2020, excluding the impact of covid-19 on its earnings.
Amazon Suspends Online Services
Amazon's Prime Pantry website has announced that it will shut down its Pantry service due to the covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a surge in orders and a shortage of inventory.
It is understood that Amazon's Prime Pantry Service, launched in 2014, provides Prime members with a variety of non-perishable foods and household necessities. Prime members can get free delivery for $35 or more. But the epidemic has left Amazon's delivery system overwhelmed by an increased risk of people going out and by a shortage of products in offline stores, which has pushed consumers to switch to online shopping. Its delivery service has experienced delays.
Amazon has already announced plans to hire 100,000 new warehouse workers and delivery workers to help with logistics and inventory issues, even slashing spending on Google ads to keep more customers from being diverted to its site and putting more pressure on its supply chain, warehousing and logistics.
