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What’s it like for businesses in Singapore?
Singapore-based shipping company Pacific International Lines (PIL) said it is continuing with its Red Sea services for now, such as to ports in Yemen and East Africa, “while taking enhanced security measures and keeping in constant contact” with its vessels in the region.
“While we make every effort to minimise disruptions to our services, the situation is fluid. Our utmost priority is on the safety of our crew, and we are monitoring the developments closely,” said Captain Abhishek Chawla, PIL’s general manager of operations and procurement.
AOCL’s Ms Kaur anticipated that the following weeks would likely remain a “tense” period, with freight forwarders like her having to keep a close watch on rate increases and last-minute route diversions; and work out alternative plans for clients.
The attack on Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou last weekend, for example, was “a shocker” and led to a “mad scramble”, with the shipping giant’s subsequent decision to pause all sailings through the Red Sea producing complications for her chemical cargo.
“We survived what happened during the pandemic, then we got the Suez Canal incident which we also breezed through. But now we have another new situation, it’s really difficult for the maritime industry,” said Ms Kaur.
Beyond shipping businesses, some food importers in Singapore are also working out alternatives to counter shipment delays, while balancing costs.
X-Inc, which runs food distributors FoodXervices and GroXers, has been informed that its shipments from Europe will take “another three to four weeks longer”, and with additional costs.
“As we might not have enough stocks, we would have to purchase locally where the cost is higher, and that’s if (there are) enough stocks locally,” said X-Inc’s chief executive Nichol Ng.
“We have also tried to hold some stock buffer, but there is nothing much we can do especially if this situation pops up last minute.”
Bublik, a grocery that imports food from Central and Eastern Europe, said part of its fresh produce like fruits and dairy products are being brought in by air.
Its sea shipments have not been impacted by delays so far, but it will have to contend with these issues moving forward.
“We have been advised by our logistics company that the rates for the Red Sea route have gone up by more than 50 per cent,” said its owner Anna Jaeger.
“For our next sea shipments, we will either have to face these higher costs, or it could be an alternative to take a ship with a routing around Africa instead, resulting in a longer shipment time.”
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