Shipping boss expecting 'nice Christmas for everybody' despite supply issues
Peter Wilson, MD of Cory Brothers, is not expecting the issues at Felixstowe Port to affect availability of goods around Christmas
Last updated 14th Oct 2021
The managing director of Suffolk-based shipping company Cory Brothers says that as long as consumers are sensible in their approach to Christmas shopping, there will be plenty to go around for everybody.
It comes after Maersk opted to divert some of its vessels away from the Suffolk coast, while similar logjams have been seen elsewhere in the world, including the US.
Felixstowe houses England's largest container ports.
A spokesperson for the port said that the issues were caused as a result of the pre-Christmas peak, combined with haulage shortages, congested inland terminals, poor vessel schedule reliability and the pandemic. They say this has resulted in the build-up of containers at the port.
Peter Wilson, the aforementioned executive from Cory Brothers, reiterates to us that this bottleneck is not the result of just one issue, like Covid-19 backlogs or Brexit but instead a perfect storm of all factors. He also adds increased consumer demand during the last few months to the list of contributing factors.
"You have to bear in mind that since the onset of Covid-19, the increase in volumes of buying, throughout the summer and over the past few months has exacerbated the situation and increased the volume of goods arriving at ports", he says.
"Consumer demand versus the ability to get those boxes here, is a very considerable factor in all this", he adds before stating that Covid-19 restrictions means only a limited number of workers are available in ports at one time. The shortage of HGV drivers has also meant that the containers that have arrived, are still waiting to be collected at the docks.
So how is this bottleneck going to be eased?
Mr Wilson suggests it is not right to just blame one institution or part of the process and says that "the shipping lines, ports and the UK Government are working together and that there are taking a step forwards."
But he insists that it will take time, and that sea-freight supply issues could continue until February 2022. Sensible buying and avoiding hoarding, will he says, ensure that the effect of these issues on Christmas stock will be negligible.
"People must approach the ordering of what they want within a sensible time-frame. They cannot go out on Christmas Eve expecting to find all the things they need for Christmas."
On the flip side, he also advises that people also avoid panic-buying as they did with fuel earlier this month. "As long as people take this measured approach, the UK supply chain machinery will not fail, it hasn't yet, it never has and it will continue to do what it means to do", Mr Wilson says.
He adds finally, "I'm anticipating a nice Christmas for everyone, they just have to plan and prepare, a little, ahead of time."
Rishi Sunak has said there will be "a good amount of Christmas presents available" this year.
The Chancellor was speaking after meeting with finance ministers from the G7 group of leading world economies to talk about the problem, with the politicians agreeing to work more closely to solve the crisis.
He said: "We’re doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate some of these challenges.
"They are global in nature so we can’t fix every single problem but I feel confident there will be good provision of goods for everybody.
"I’m confident there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy."