HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II
We wish to open this issue of Kukla News with our own words of tribute to our late Queen Elizabeth II who died on Thursday September 8th 2022.
Hers was an extraordinary life. Her sense of duty and service, humility and compassion, decency and respect, intelligence and wisdom were consistently maintained over her 70 year reign. Her loss to the Family, her country and the world will be felt for years. Her presence will remain around us for ever. Long Live the King.
KUKLA UK’S CUSTOMS DIVISION
As we highlighted last month, the deadline for businesses filing import declarations to have transitioned from CHIEF to CDS is 30 September.
With this system migration comes major changes to customs declarations. Any Kukla customer for whom we complete customs declarations will need to be aware of and be prepared for the latest requirements.
To support you and your teams in preparation for these changes, our Customs Division is here to help and guide you – please click here to go to our page with all the relevant details.
KUKLA EXPANDS MANAGEMENT TEAM
Robert Kukla UK is strengthening the management team by appointing the highly experienced Gavin Williams as Deep Sea Manager (imports and exports), as of 1st September. The step is part of the company’s expansion plan and to support its growing business and commercial partnerships in the industry.
Kukla UK’s Managing Director, Steve Wood, considers this new appointment another important milestone in the company’s evolution: “With customer care, attention and value central to our service offering, Kukla UK welcomes highly respected Gavin Williams as Deep Sea Manager. A former colleague, Gavin, brings a wealth of experience that will complement our ongoing objectives and growth aspirations.” Click here to read the full press release.
Click here to see our new team chart Team – Kukla Beverage Logistics (kukla-spedition.com)
IN THE NEWS
LWIN fine wine code could potentially become the ‘ISBN’ (International Standard Book Number) for wine. The Liv-ex Wine Identification Number is a universal code applied to individual wines to identify them accurately and consistently across the supply chain. LWIN system was developed in 2011, and now there are more than 140,000 different wines and spirits assigned their unique LWIN number. The ambition for the future is for LWIN to continue to expand, both in size and influence. The UK Government has identified it as an international standard that it wants to pursue as part of its Border 2025 Strategy, which aims to streamline global trade in a post-Brexit world. Click here to read the story.
SEA FRIGHT UPDATE
Unite the Union has confirmed strike action is to take place at the Port of Liverpool between 06:00 Monday 19 September and 06:00 Monday 3 October.
Globally, shipping continues to face several challenges. One of the most significant is transit times on trade major routes but also disruptions caused by potential work force strikes.
In the UK, the Felixstowe strike happened but the issues which led to it have not been resolved and the Union has a mandate for future industrial action.
Union members in Liverpool have also voted to strike, but other southern UK ports of London Gateway and Southampton have concluded union negotiations and are expected to be operational. Disruption caused by strikes could lead to additional costs for inland road transport, delays and potential storage costs for scheduled container deliveries or pickups at affected ports, and congestion at other operational ports should ocean carriers decide to divert cargo.
Freight rates dropped 6% to $6,159/FEU in July driven by rate decreases on ex-Asia to US West Coast and European lanes. With these decreases, and considering last July’s sharp increase, this rate is 39% lower than its level a year ago, though still more than 4X pre-pandemic levels. Europe – US East Coast rates are 50% lower than a year ago.. Of the major trade lanes, only transatlantic prices are higher than at the start of the year. Read more here: Shipping Delays & Freight Cost Increases 2022 | Freightos.
Sea-Intelligence has published issue 132 of the Global schedule. Reliability continues to trend upwards, increasing by 0.5 percentage points M/M in July 2022 to 40.5%. This is now the second time since the start of the pandemic that schedule reliability improved Year on Year. Average delays for LATE vessel arrivals have been dropping sharply so far this year. In July 2022, average delay improved by -0.09 days Month/on Month, which means that the delay figure is now firmly below the 7-day mark, and an improvement over the equivalent 2021 figure.
ROAD FREIGHT
Inflation, weakening demand, social instability and the war in Ukraine are leading to tumultuous developments in road freight prices, reveals the Ti / Upply / IRU Road Freight Rate Benchmark for Q2 2022. For the first time, this edition offers a separate analysis of the evolution of spot and contract rates.
- The European contract road freight rate index reaches an all-time high of 121 points in Q2 2022, up 6.1 points quarter-on-quarter and 13.1 points year-on-year.
- The European spot road freight rate index also reached a record high of 134 points, up 11.8 points from Q1 2022 and 20.1 points from Q2 2021.
- Inflation is rising in all European countries and reached a record high of 8.6% in the Eurozone in June, weighing on costs and demand.
- While diesel prices have varied by country, prices have remained elevated in July and are 69% above the January level.
In France, the maximum load for combined transport is being increased from 42-44 tons to 46 tons. This is an experiment that will last 18 months. It should be beneficial to truckers, but especially multi-modal transport, as this experiment will only applies to cargo that is moved using rail-road combinations, something that Kukla have been working with throughout and beyond the pandemic. More from: https://www.rha.uk.net/news/news-blogs-and-press-releases/news-updates/detail/france-trials-heavier-weights-to-railheads.
Christmas and New Year
Don’t forget with all the uncertainty that you should be adding additional time for all your Christmas and a New Year’s Eve deliverables.
