U.S.A

2020.04.22.

H2X Nesletter

Dear Valued Customers,

We at Hankyu Hanshin Express want you to know that we appreciate your business and will continue to do all we can to ensure that your company receives exceptional services from all our staff.

There was no expectation how 2020 began the year, with social and economic impact due to on-going COVID19 pandemic. Federal and State governments continue to roll out plans to battle this wide spreading virus. Americans lives are impacted daily and Supply Chain and Logistics are no different.

As you may know, airline capacities are reduced, simply because restrictions placed on passengers' travel, international and domestic. Despite the efforts to operate passenger aircraft as cargo carriage, overall capacity and routes have been drastically reduced. Capacity reduction is unique by route and region; however, statistics show that capacity was reduced 30-60% compared to a year ago.

Ocean carriers continue to schedule blank sailings, and there have been 435 sailings cancelled, which equates to 7 million twenty-foot container equivalent units (TEU) of container capacity reduction. Ocean carriers are expected to continue this blank sailing, due to lack of demand.

Both air and ocean markets are expected to have increases in cost. The air market was hit quite severely, and cost of air freight has gone up exponentially. In some region's the air freight market increased 30%, while some other routes have gone up more than 200%. At Hankyu Hanshin Express, we are continuously planning for creative routing, alternative carrier combination, and execution of charter air flight for some regions. While it is inevitable for cost increases, we manage your products to move in your supply chain at minimal financial impact as possible.

Ocean markets is expected to have space shortage when manufacturing ability comes back to post COVID19 pandemic. Ocean carriers' blank sailing cannot be adjusted quick enough to the demand increases, and we have already seen space issues originating from Southeast Asia as well as China markets. When space becomes an issue, it will drive the cost up in the market. Although such curves are typically delayed weeks, possibly up to a month, we expect the space tightness and cost increases in May thru June 2020. We are continuously monitoring the space on each route and discussing with our customers to encourage advanced booking as much as possible.

Hankyu Hanshin Express is committed and will continue to operate without any disruption under our Business Continuity Plan. We will ensure that your supply chain will not be interrupted, and we will strive to provide unique options to our customer. In midst of the hard times we are currently in, we will engage with our customers more than ever, and unite to move past this obstacle.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our local offices or your account manager at your convenience.


Thank you & Sincerely,
Hankyu Hanshin Express USA Inc