PUBLISHER: The Load Star (www.theloadstar.com)
UK retailers have been mitigating the dearth of export capacity on offer from Asia for the main container hubs of Felixstowe, Southampton and London Gateway by chartering space from ad-hoc providers for discharge at smaller ports.
Moreover, with thousands of containers packed with Christmas goods stranded at ports on the continent, the left-field strategy of taking a chance on entrepreneurial carriers and NVOCCs has paid off for some major retailers, ensuring empty shelves are kept to a minimum in the vital pre-holiday peak buying weeks.
As an example, the Cetus Star, a 33,800 dwt handysize bulk carrier, arrived at London Container Terminal, Tilbury, yesterday with a deck load of Uniocean containers from Asia, understood to be for a large high street retailer, with the boxes said to be available for collection today.