Channel crossing situation

COVID-19 new virus variant Omicron – impact on air and sea freight services

The new COVID-19 virus variant Omicron, which was detected to be widespread in South Africa, has led to some cancellation of passenger flights to and from South Africa.

Apart from this, there are currently no massive restrictions, but it cannot be entirely ruled out that some countries or regions will implement further measures to contain the spread of this virus variant.

This could lead to restrictions on cargo space due to a lack of belly capacity on passenger flights. In addition, Hong Kong Airport has announced that even cargo aircrafts touching Omicron high-risk countries such as South Africa will not be allowed to enter Hong Kong until further notice. Therefore, flight rerouting will be expected.

For the ocean freight sector, there has been no change of the current situation so far. We have only received the information from one shipping company that a new service with South Africa is suspended for two months.

Furthermore, there are also discussions in progress in the Asian market about tightening the COVID-19 rules for ship crews, but these are still under negotiation. Confirmed is only that feeder services from the Pearl River Delta (PRD) to/from South China, including Hong Kong, are also suspended from December to January. This could lead to a challenging situation with trucking capacity and more changes of transport modes to air freight.

The team of DACHSER is in daily contact with all involved parties and doing everything possible to minimise any delays of your shipment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with your local DACHSER representative who will be happy to assist you.

Brexit deal agreed - customs administration from 01.01.2021

On 24.12.2020, an agreement on future cooperation and trade was reached between the EU and the UK.

An essential point is that between EU and UK for goods deliveries from both areas no customs duties are to be levied. However, this does not mean that the administrative "customs clearance" will be eliminated. This means that all documents and customs relevant information must be submitted by the customer in advance and only after the shipment has been released by the customs team of DACHSER, the shipment can be accepted for dispatch.

Please note that from 01.01.2021 this applies to all shipments between the EU and UK, only shipments from the EU to Northern Ireland are excluded. In particular, proof of preferential origin of goods should be provided. The most important necessary information for exporters and importers can be found in the document below.

Fuel price

The average fuel price according to the RHA survey for May was 112.67 pence per litre.