New Zealand
AIR
IMPORT
- Major terminals (Air New Zealand, Swissport, Menzies) are operating normally nationwide.
EXPORT
- Major terminals (Air New Zealand, Swissport, Menzies) are operating normally nationwide.
LANDSIDE & CUSTOMS
- Manawatu Inland Port will be ceasing operations with a controlled wind down over the next few months, leading to full site closure on 27th November 2026.
- The NZ Customs Service has noticed a significant increase in the number of instances where the identity of legitimate NZ and overseas companies are being falsely used to facilitate the importation of drugs and other prohibited goods. The groups behind this are adopting clever ways to make the shipment seem as legitimate as possible. Industry vigilance is a key way to help combat this risk.
Some recent indicators to be alert to are:
• Air and sea freight shipment
• Originate from US but may be transited via other countries
• DDP incoterms
• Goods valued at under $1000 and cleared on a Simplified Entry
• Communications via email
• Regular imports
• The importer/supplier may ‘recommend’ other people to you for clearance of additional shipmentsIf you have, or have previously had, any such shipments in the past then please be alert to the email address you are communicating with to ensure it is an email address correctly associated with the legitimate importer or supplier e.g. the email may end ‘.com’ whereas the legitimate business may use ‘.co.nz’.
If you are approached to clear or handle any such future shipments, or you suspect you may have previously cleared or handled any such shipment, then please contact the Customs Border Protect team as soon as possible. Your information may help protect New Zealand and stop harm coming to our communities. Effective border control takes partnerships and collaboration, and we can’t always identify this type of offending alone.
If you think something isn’t right, regardless of what it is, please call the Border Protect team on 021 957 928, or email ccateamakl@customs.govt.nz. You will never be wasting our time, and we welcome referrals of anything suspicious regardless of how big or small it is.
Australia
LANDSIDE & CUSTOMS
- The BMSB Seasonal measures for 2026-2027 have now commenced and will apply to target high-risk goods from target risk countries shipped on board a vessel between 1st September 2026 to 30th April 2027 (inclusive) https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/before/brown-marmorated-stink-bugshttps://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/import/before/brown-marmorated-stink-bugs
- We are pleased to advise that we have seen an improvement in Border Holds affecting import containers. Industry bodies continue to work closely with Border Force to advocate for appropriate resourcing and greater transparency around the reasons for holds. Importers should continue to allow for potential delays when planning shipments and escalate through normal channels where appropriate. While the situation is improving, some delays and associated costs may continue to occur.
- Due to the high volume of import containers entering Australia, terminals are experiencing congestion and delays to berthing windows. This has also resulted in limited container slot availability for the collection of full import containers and the return of empty containers to designated container parks, with transport carriers charging additional waiting time costs outside of their free time window. These delays are also impacting import LCL consignments & LCL slot availability.
Asia
AIR
IMPORT
- New Zealand import capacity remains tight across all of Asia. We are already starting to see ocean shipments being booked as air that is eating up any spare capacity.
- Australian import capacity is okay across major trade lanes, with some services experiencing 24 – 48 hours delays.
- Australian import rates continue to fluctuate depending on carrier and routing, with spot pricing available for urgent or oversized shipments.
- Demand and bookings remain steady across key markets.
EXPORT
- The Anak Krakatau eruption in Indonesia has disrupted flights across the region that will likely take the remainder of the week to get back on schedule.
- Australian export rates are still stable across key export markets, particularly into China and North Asia.
- Australian export capacity is getting tight with certain carriers starting to fill up quickly, early bookings are recommended.
- Premium options available with good capacity at higher rates for urgent Australian export cargo.
OCEAN
IMPORT
- Current berthing wait times at major ports throughout China have not really seen any improvement in the past 2 weeks, particularly because Typhoon Saudel saw further closures at major terminals (though not quite as bad as the previous 2 typhoons) – currently over 2 million TEU is caught up in the congestion, having significant impacts on global supply chains. At the time of writing this, we have the below berth waiting times:
– Shanghai: 7 days at Yangshan Terminal / 9+ days at Wai Gao Qiao Terminal (the terminal the 2 largest NZ
services calls)
– Ningbo: 3 – 4 days
– Yantian: 4 days
– Most other ports are sitting around 1 – 2 days
- As a result of the berthing delays, we have seen all 3 services engage in quite significant omission/blanking plans as they look to mitigate the delays and keep arrivals as close to weekly as possible:
– ANZEX (ANL) / CNS (COSCO & OOCL) / NCS (PIL) – currently alternating omissions between Shanghai and Ningbo/Kaohsiung, this has been running for the past month or so and likely to continue
– JKN (COSCO & OOCL) / J-Star (Maersk) / NZJ (ONE) – upcoming plan for alternating omissions of Yantian and Shanghai, only currently planned for the next 3 sailings however may continue if things don’t improve
– Northern Star (Maersk) – a mix of omissions (Shanghai) and blanking of sailings
- Over the past week there has been Industrial Action in Mundra that seems to be revolving around movements of empty containers. Unfortunately, this has spilled over to become a wider issue, disrupting road and rail movements into and off the port and causing significant delays. This has caused further issues in an area where feeder services were already struggling to operate close to 100%. Mundra is the main gateway to Northern India (including New Delhi) for many shipping lines, so any delays have quite significant impacts.
- Congestion in Singapore and Malaysian transship ports seems to be improving, with likelihood of return to manageable levels from around Week 39/40.
EXPORT
- Asia is still experiencing disruption due to terminal congestion and vessel queues following multiple typhoons over the past few weeks – Ningbo and Shanghai ports are seeing the most impact with many vessels omitting each port.
- Space remains accessible however schedules are changing with little to no warning.
MIDDLE EAST:
There are limited-service options to the region. Some Carriers are offering services to Khor Fakkan and Al Fujairah in the UAE. Alternative services to Aqaba, Jeddah and King Abdullah entering the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea are available.
Trans-Tasman
AIR
IMPORT
- New Zealand imports – Consols are largely moving as booked however Air NZ have had some delays ex Melbourne. Additional space remains hard to get and rates are increasing for anything that sits outside the consols.
- Qantas, Dnata, Swissport and Menzies Aviation continue to operate as normal.
EXPORT
- Export terminals across Australia continue to operate normally.
- New Zealand export consols are moving as booked and additional capacity is now available on freighters during the week.
OCEAN
- We have been advised of upcoming reforms for export regulations on non-prescribed goods from Australia.
It appears that seven groups of goods currently treated as non-prescribed goods would become prescribed “General Products”. Therefore, these products may be subject to additional regulations and require export permits.
The commodities that will be affected are:
– food and beverages;
– rendered goods;
– pet food, stockfeed and feed additives;
– skins and hides;
– honey and honeybee products;
– wool and wool grease; and
– pharmaceutical, technical and blood products of animalThe changes are intended to strengthen Australia’s export assurance framework, provide greater traceability and meet increasingly complex importing-country requirements. While much of the initial consultation has focused on producers and exporters, the proposed arrangements may also have important operational and legal implications for freight forwarders.
The permit requirement is currently expected to commence from around April 2027.
- The transport Workers Union (TWU) has announced Industrial Action commencing Thursday 10th September. The 24-hour strike will impact some major national transport providers and is as a result of stalled negotiations around ‘industry standard’ pay. This may result in some port congestion in the days following as backlog deliveries and pickups are cleared. We will monitor and update accordingly.
IMPORT
- As 20’ equipment shortages continue we are seeing a shift towards LCL (less container load) as the next best alternative transport mode. Delays can occur as we wait for shipping lines to find and make boxes available. Based on current market rates, any consignments 17 CBM or less can be on parr with an FCL ( Full container load) shipment. At face value the cost per CBM as LCL is higher but savings in trucking (origin and destination), devan time and labour as well as the complete removal of detention risk needs to be considered. While FCL pricing is subject to change and can impact this FCL vs LCL ratio over time, the lack of 20’ equipment supply in Australia will be ongoing.
EXPORT
- ANL’s ANZ Shuttle service will remain a fortnightly service until the 29th of Oct when the ANL Tasman Trader resumes its New Zealand rotation starting in Auckland.
- MSC are introducing a new service to Australia called the Northern Loop from the 12th of Sept. The rotation will be as follows: Sydney – Auckland – Napier – Tauranga – Sydney. At the same time, MSC is also adding a Nelson port call to its Southern Loop service, along with an additional call at Wellington to enhance connections to their deep-sea services.
- Fuel prices are still changing, and we are currently sitting at 34% in Australia. We will continue to update this weekly.
Europe
AIR
IMPORT
- New Zealand imports – Some delays on London and Milan consols, the remainder are moving okay, and space is becoming more readily available.
- Australian import capacity is limited on most services, with transit delays of up to 48 – 72 hours still being experienced.
- Australian import rate fluctuations continue depending on airline capacity.
EXPORT
- New Zealand exports – Space is available on Emirates, Qatar and interline options via Asia.
- Australian export capacity is very tight with some of the cheaper carriers, booking lead times of 1-2 days may apply on some carriers.
- Premium options are available for urgent Australian export cargo.
- Space is available for Australian exports, with advance planning.
OCEAN
IMPORT
- BMSB season started again on September 1st 2026 and will run thru to April 30th 2027. Procedures should be the same as last season.
- CMA CGM has suspended booking on their Europe to NZ services via Asia due to peak season volumes causing congestion. Booking ahead 3-4 weeks is recommend across all lines.
- Some lines have introduced Emergency Fuel Surcharges due to rapidly rising oil prices.
- CMA CGM and Maersk are continuing to sail via Cape of Good Hope.
- There have been shortages of 20ft equipment from some ports.
- Low water levels in canals means barge services are limited and more cargo moving on the road. Truckers can be hard to get with all this extra work.
- We have seen increased customs inspections from European ports particularly on cargo with any military connection.
EXPORT
- Due to peak season space has tightened on all European services, please endeavour to place your bookings 4+ weeks in advance.
- There is congestion with transshipment in Singapore with some Carriers averaging delays of 3-5 weeks.
- There has recently been Industrial Strike Action affecting port operations in Germany and Rotterdam. The strikes are expected to impact vessel operations, terminal handling, and inland cargo movements.
North America
AIR
IMPORT
- Most New Zealand import consols are now moving as booked as back logs are cleared. Labour Day has caused some delays in collections that will flow on to departure dates.
- Australian import consols are generally moving as booked with minimal 24 – 48 hrs delays.
- Additional space capacity is limited for Australian imports, with most carriers delaying up to 48 – 72 hours. Early bookings are still recommended where possible.
- Australian import rates remain relatively stable overall, with some fluctuations depending on carrier and routing.
- Demand and bookings remain steady across key markets.
EXPORT
- Capacity is starting to ease for New Zealand exports and bookings for most shipments are now confirmed within 48 to 72 hours across most carriers.
- Uplift availability remains tight across several carriers for Australian exports. Early bookings are recommended.
- Australian export rates remain relatively stable overall, with minor fluctuations across selected services and routings.
- Australian export capacity remains manageable with sufficient forward planning.
OCEAN
- Vancouver terminal utilization has increased to 89%, there are no berthing delays. The average import rail dwell time has reduced slightly to 3.3 days.
- US Terminal Operations:
Los Angeles – average dwell time for local import cargo is 3.1 days, on-dock rail dwell time has decreased from 5.1 days to 4 days.
IMPORT
- Low water levels in the Panama Canal are starting to have a wider reaching impact, with some restrictions on transits already in place and lines actively managing their load planning to mitigate delays on transits.
- With restrictions in place through the Panama Canal, there are fears that cargo from Asia that is destined for the East Coast and Mid-West may look to divert to West Coast ports, putting strain on intermodal moves throughout the USA. We are yet to see this come to fruition however we are highlighting it as a potential risk as we move into October/November.
EXPORT
- West Coast North America – demand has increased for direct service to West Coast of the US & Canada, the Vancouver calling vessels are heavily booked through to October. The is a blank sailing in week 38. After the Mate 634N ETD 10/9 the subsequent Vancouver vessel is the ANL Warrnambool 637N ETD 1/10.
- US East Coast – Space remains tight; we do encourage that bookings are placed in 3+ weeks in advance of departure.
- US Rail – There is seasonal congestion at US rail ramp, Chicago, Louisville and Kansas City are heavily impacted.
