Recently, the United States has been hit by extremely cold weather, with temperatures in many places hitting record lows in recent years. Texas has been the worst hit, with outdoor temperatures in some areas of Dallas dropping to minus 45 degrees Celsius. The snowstorm caused the power grid to paralyzed in the severe cold, leaving about 4 million residents without power for a long time, and water and fuel supplies were also affected.
Extreme weather caused highways to freeze, traffic was blocked, and some Amazon FBA warehouses were closed!
Many freight forwarders posted notices saying that "due to the blizzard in the United States, more than 70 FBA warehouses in the United States were closed and are expected to resume operations at the end of February." In response, Cross-border Rhino consulted the staff of overseas warehouses, who said that "Amazon warehouses were indeed affected, but they were only closed temporarily."
A logistics company manager said: "Amazon has confirmed that some warehouses are temporarily closed due to severe weather in the east. The closure may last for a few hours and will reopen. They are not closed forever. Warehouses such as Dallas are currently open, but the receiving volume is reduced. Their company is mainly affected by MEM1.Saturday(17.200, 0.52, 3.12%) Temporarily closed, but Amazon is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Sunday. ”
There is no doubt that the United States is facing a state of "massive delays". Flight suspensions, work stoppages and icy highways have brought great difficulties to logistics and transportation. According to the US Weather Channel, the winter storm dropped 4 inches of snow at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, which is the heaviest snowfall in the area since 2010.
As of noon local time on the 16th, 2,700 flights had been canceled in the United States. The most affected airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, canceled more than 800 flights, and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport canceled more than 700 flights.
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US trucking companies stop accepting cargo in some areas
Affected by the recent snowstorm in the United States, many logistics companies have issued notices to suspend the acceptance of shipments or delivery delays in some areas. Among them, express delivery services in some areas may be delayed due to extreme weather; truck delivery services are greatly restricted. Some truck companies have stopped accepting shipments to Texas, Oklahoma and other regions since February 18, US time, and some stations have been closed, limiting order delivery.
The following are the areas most affected by extreme weather, compiled by a cloud warehouse B2B platform based on the official websites of truck companies: Texas (TX), Tennessee (TN), Pennsylvania (PA), Oklahoma (OK), Washington (WA), Oregon (OR), Arizona (Az), and Northern California.
Sellers who ship goods to the above areas are advised to pay close attention to orders that are already in transit and communicate with customers in a timely manner about possible delays caused by weather conditions.
Rail services and logistics networks disrupted in western U.S.
The storm affected railroad workers in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin and Washington.Pacific Ocean(3.350, 0.12, 3.72%) The railroad began closing all intermodal doors Tuesday morning.
The company said "cargo to affected areas will be delayed for at least 72 hours until the situation improves."
Burlington Northern also notified customers of possible operational impacts to its network due to the weather, saying there would be "extended delays" for freight through parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast.
FedEx and UPS issue service announcements
In addition to railroads, FedEx and UPS have also issued service bulletins warning of potential shipping delays. Currently, FedEx pickup and delivery may be delayed across the United States, and scanning and tracking information may also be delayed. These potential service disruptions may cause different levels of impact, depending on the geographic area.
According to the announcement document, FedEx Ground provides partial services in 16 states, FedEx Freight has suspended services in multiple cities in 18 states, and FedEx Express has suspended services in multiple cities in 8 states.
UPS also released the zip codes for five states affected by the snowstorm. However, FedEx and UPS indicated in the notice that they have developed contingency plans.
During this period, sellers must extend their preparation time, purchase cargo insurance, keep in touch with freight forwarders and buyers, ask more about logistics and transportation status, and inform buyers of weather delays.
Congestion worsens at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports
Epic congestion at the US ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach shows no sign of abating.
According to U.S. media reports, the Port of Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States plans to transfer container ships to other ports to control the current traffic congestion problem that has caused container and ship bottlenecks.
Currently, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are still plagued by massive congestion, which has caused almost paralysis both on land and on the water. Yesterday, there were 21 container ships berthing at the port, waiting an average of 8 days, while the average container stay time was 5 days. A week ago, there were 32 container ships berthing in San Pedro Bay, with 25 berthing at LA-LB berths.
“Container dwell time at the docks remains around five days, double what it was before last summer’s import surge. Street dwell time (waiting for warehouse space) for a conventional 40-foot container is now 7.6 days,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Anthony Simpson.
Container lines such as Hapag Lloyd and CMA CGM are temporarily rerouting some sailings to Oakland and other West Coast ports to ease record backlogs at the Port of Los Angeles and the adjacent Port of Long Beach.
The Port of Los Angeles expects February volumes to increase 34% year-over-year to 730,000 TEUs, with an early forecast for March projecting year-over-year volumes. With no let-up, terminals and carriers are taking actions to restore a better balance in operations.
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