The global freight marketplace is experiencing an abnormal phenomenon – a shortage of shipping containers, add to this ‘blank sailings’ and supply chains are being well and truly stress tested! We are working closely with our contracted freight partners to ensure any deleterious impacts are lessened, however is it is inevitable that we will experience some delays. These challenging times are expected to continue until at least Chinese New Year in February 2021 and possibly longer. We will do our utmost to meet your forecasted ETA requirements and we are also installing a new tool next month that will help us more proactively manage any disruptions or delays.
And if the shipping issue was not enough, we also need to highlight COVID-19 in these final weeks of 2020. From March through August this year several kraft paper producers in Europe and North America made capacity adjustments due to the pandemic. The curtailment reasons were varied and ranged from a reduced workforce through to not being able to source wood chips
With coronavirus cases currently exploding across Europe and North America, and severe control measures being attempted it is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ more machine downtime is taken. Already this month a European MG kraft paper producer was forced to stop production from the 5th to the 15th of November due to an outbreak of COVID-19. Our Sack Kraft and MG Kraft machines are fully operational and continue to offer the reliability that you need and have come to expect. We have not been forced to take any unplanned downtime so far throughout the pandemic and we are confident that our COVID-19 plan will see us navigate the coming challenging months successfully.
We can assure you that we are still here working hard to fulfill your needs the best we can and we would encourage you to e-mail or phone us with any concerns or questions. Thank you for your continued support.
