It’s that time of year again that all of us in the logistics industry have planned for (hopefully) months in advance. No, not Black Friday. We’re talking about the Chinese New Year (CNY).
Few know that the Chinese New Year is the largest annual mass migration on the planet. Approximately 80 million Chinese workers migrate from urban work centers along the coast to their rural hometowns creating between two to four weeks of radio silence from an entire country. The entire Chinese grid of the supply chain shuts down for nearly a month.
To put this Chinese national holiday in perspective, China is the global leader in exporting and is the USA’s largest goods trading partner with $635.4 billion in total goods trade as reported in 2017. In simpler terms, China is currently the power supply to many of our supply chain activities – especially those involved in Ocean shipping like Drayage & Intermodal. What if someone shut off the power to your house and you couldn’t get it back on – much less, even contact a customer service rep – for up to a month?
Obviously, you would hope to prepare for it beforehand. Maybe you would buy a few generators and stock up on a few extra gallons of fuel. For the logistics industry, companies try to prepare for this “Supply Chain power outage” by building up inventory ahead of time, informing forwarders about priority shipments (in case of limited space), and even reserving space on passenger flights for shipments that cannot be delayed.
In light of this Chinese holiday, Easley has also prepared in advance by increasing our Memphis Intermodal and Drayage Capacity. CNY can create headaches for shippers and carriers alike as they navigate new routes in the supply chain to move their freight, which is why we like to take a customized, combined approach to the problem. This allows us to stay agile in case customers need Drayage, Transloading, Storage, and Local Cartage all for one load.
If the Chinese New Year caught you off-guard, don’t worry – Easley has prepared and we’d love to help. Call us at 901.362.5152, fill out our quick quote form, or send us an email to [email protected]. We can restore your supply chain power!