News Updates

Return to Newsletter Index

DGX - Dependable Global Express

8/31/2017

Dear Valued Customers,

The following is provided for your information:

GENERAL

Holiday Schedule

The following offices will also be closed in celebration of their local holidays, as shown below:

USA	Labor Day	September 4
India	Independence Day Ganesh Chaturthi Awal Muharram	August 15 August 25 September 21
Philippines	Ninoy Aquino Day National Heroes Day Eid Al Adha	August 21 August 28 September 1
Singapore	Hari Raya Haji	September 1
Japan	Respect For the Aged Day Autumnal Equinox Day	September 18 September 23
Malaysia	National Day Hari Raya Haji Malaysia Day Awal Muharram	August 31 September 1 September 16 September 22
Australia	Queens Birthday (Fremantle) Friday before the AFL Grand Final (Melbourne)	September 26 September 29

Please remember that certain offices are across the International Dateline. The dates above are their dates, not the actual U.S. date.

Southern California Facility

Our Southern California Rancho Dominguez facility recently turned on our solar power installation. We continue to strive to reduce our carbon footprint! For a brief and fun video of our power system please go to www.dhx.com or www.dgxglobal.com and watch the video.

Hurricane Harvey

All Port Houston facilities will be out of business temporarily due to Hurricane Harvey. We are experiencing rail delays out of Houston, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta CFS stations. A return to normalcy for shipping patterns into/out of Houston, with functioning roads and rails, is not expected for at least a month.

Safety and well-being of people are of paramount importance under these circumstances. The storm will affect supply chain operations whether or not you have facilities or customers in the area.

We might experience and come up against some of the following events during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey:

Refineries in Corpus Christi, Lake Charles, and Houston have about 30% of the nation’s oil refining capacity. The disruption in that area will drive up fuel prices in the short-term for consumers, and for the fuel surcharges our trucking carriers charge. Historically, these prices return close to normal levels within a couple of months.
Economists estimate transportation costs will rise between 5-22% in the short term as carriers become less available due to the demand of priority shipments/requests from FEMA, other Federal and State agencies and emergency related organizations.
FEMA and other responding agencies are already putting pressure on the market to move equipment and supplies to the stricken areas. We are hearing from other carriers that it will affect flatbed trailers immediately (heavy equipment), followed by refrigerated (food and ice), and then dry trailers (bottled water and other supplies). As a result, carrier capacity may get tighter.
Expect some temporary delays on transit time or missed commitments. FEMA and other agencies will need carriers to bring needed equipment and supplies, and will pay a hefty premium to have priority service. We will work with our carrier base to minimize these interruptions.

Los Angeles Port Volume

The Los Angeles and Long Beach Port Complexes had the highest container volume in their history this past July. The surge is owed to strong import performance in particular.

LA port volumes rose by 16% and LB container volumes increased by 13.1% when compared to same month in 2016. Import container volume increased 13% into L.A. and 16.3 into L.B - an all time record for the LB port- for the month of July. Loaded exports out of L.A. rose 17% while export containers out of L.B. decreased by 11.7%.

The port anticipates growth in container volume to continue for the rest of 2017 and years to come, with stable labor operations after the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (IWLU) ratified a 3-year contract extension with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). The current agreement was set to expire on July 1, 2019; the three-year pact approved on August 4, 2017 will extend the expiration to July 1, 2022.

Because of these volumes surges, we believe the peak season this year will be a record breaker from a volume standpoint also. In prior years, this would be cause for concern that the Ports would not able to operate efficiently. However, both Ports have made numerous changes to improve the flow of containers and trucks through the various terminals, and we are hoping to report at the end of the peak season that terminal congestion was minimal.

2017-18 Marmorated Stink Bug season measures for FCL & Break Bulk shipments ex USA to Australia

The new Marmorated Stink Bug Season will start on the September 1, 2017 and will end on April 30, 2018. During this period all high risk commodities are required to be fumigated at origin to avoid delays and extra costs upon arrival in Australia.
If you are unsure if your goods fall in the high risk category please contact your local DGX office or check the commodity list on the below homepage.

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/import/before/pests/brown-marmorated-stink-bugs/season-measures?wasRedirectedByModule=true#containerised

USA TO AUSTRALIA – BAF & LSS ADJUSTMENT

The Bunker Adjustment Factor and Low Sulphur Surcharge applied to shipments from the United States to Australia will be revised for FCL shipments, effective October 1, 2017. LCL charges remain the same.

The Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) will be revised to:
USD478.00/20’ and USD956.00/40’

The Low Sulphur Surcharge (LSS) will be revised to:
USD7.00/20’ and USD14.00/40’

Should you have additional questions, please contact your local DGX office or representative, or call us toll-free at (888) 488-4888 or local at (310) 669-8888.

For Hawaii news updates see News Updates at www.dhx.com.

Thank you for your business - we appreciate it!