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I’m just going on gut feel here, but I think this is the earliest in the year that Christmas has ever been mentioned on 2oceansvibe.

Fear not, because even if we did work from an office the tree wouldn’t go up until the very last minute, carols would be banned, and everyone would be limited to a single viewing of Love Actually over the festive period.

Anyway, I digress, because there’s actually good reason for you to consider getting those gifts sorted a little earlier than usual this year.

Bloomberg points out that global shipping supply-chain disruptions are getting worse, with the backlog from the Suez Canal debacle combining with COVID-19 disruptions to form the perfect storm:

Those are still causing problems, but there’s a new hiccup that threatens to prolong the pain, maybe even long enough to upset Christmas shopping: The key export hub of Yantian in the heart of China’s factory belt was partially shut down in June to control virus cases, shrinking what little spare capacity existed in an industry that moves more than $4 trillion worth of goods across the global economy each year…

That means container shipping rates could stay high and delivery times could get stretched out even more heading into the peak season for inventory rebuilding in August, when retailers like to stuff warehouses with year-end Christmas items.

If retailers don’t get sufficient stock in, that could lead to higher prices, or parents being left to deal with the fallout of their children not getting what they want on Christmas morning.

My early condolences to you all.

Port congestion, container rates, and freight expenditures are also major concerns for those who rely on efficient shipping to run their businesses.

If that includes you or your business, there’s no need to go it alone, and local freight logistics experts Berry & Donaldson can do the legwork, handling airlines, shipping companies, and customs-related processes, as well as warehousing, insurance, cargo deliveries.

They won’t sort out the kids’ Christmas prezzies early, though – that’s on you.

Let’s circle back to the port congestion problem quickly:

Ships waiting to offload are parked outside ports from Singapore to Savannah, Georgia, and big European gateways for trade like Hamburg, Liverpool and Rotterdam are dealing with bottlenecks and delays, too.

Dozens of ships are queued up around Yantian and, by one estimate, more than 400 000 20-foot containers were brought to a standstill.

The Suez Canal blockage – enjoy the memes, but feel the repercussions for months to come.

Hopefully, this is the last time we will have to mention Christmas before it’s deemed acceptable to do so, which I reckon is somewhere around early November.

By then, no doubt, you’ll already be bombarded.

[source:bloomberg]