After the Storm

The storm lasted a day. The backlog lasted weeks.

This summer, a series of typhoons moved through Asia and forced some of the world's busiest ports to close, some more than once. In August, container ships waited as long as 12 days to berth at Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen.

When a port closes, ships keep arriving. When it reopens, it has to clear the backlog and handle new arrivals at the same time. In our experience, one day closed can take about a week to recover from.

At the Panama Canal, drought is causing the opposite problem. Low water has reduced daily transits from 36 to 32.

Put these together, and the delays spread. A typhoon in Asia can become a late delivery on the other side of the world weeks later.

Weather isn't predictable. The impact can be planned for:

• Build extra time into lead times

• Watch waiting times at origin ports

• Book early

• Protect critical parts

The companies that handle disruption best aren't the ones that react fastest. They're the ones that planned earliest.

For more insight into weather impacts on global logistics, click here.

To learn more about VentureSource makes logistics more visible, click here.