LDB Service Update: Import Shipment Clearances
Dear ABLE BC Members and Industry Colleagues,
As you may know, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents BC port workers, began strike action on July 1, 2023. The ongoing strike has led to the suspension of imports of consumer goods and may impact the supply chain for liquor products.
The Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) has shared this message with licensees:
As you may be aware, the bargaining group representing port workers in British Columbia initiated job action on Saturday, July 1, 2023.
The BC Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) recognizes this news may be concerning to our customers and agents.
We will continue to monitor the situation and work closely with third party warehouses and freight forwarders to determine if there are any potential delays on import clearances.
Any updates and important notices will be posted on the LDB Wholesale Operations website at wholesale.bcldb.com.
We value our industry partnerships and will continue to work together to serve our mutual customers.
ContainerWorld made efforts to load in additional product prior to strike action. They shared this message on July 4, 2023:
As a follow up from our Container Press CP23-033, the job action at the British Columbia ports is now on its fourth day. In preparation for the job action, we brought in all the available containers from the ports on Friday day and into the evening. More specifically we brought in containers from the following vessels; Synergy Busan, Shreya, YM Triumph & most of the CMA CGM Ganges. Both sides negotiated over the long weekend and were at the table earlier in the day on Monday, however they have stopped the negotiation with no further details.
With the ongoing job action, all port operations are on hold until further notice from terminal operators, and we are not able to arrange any drayage movements to and from the Ports. We continue to have open dialogue with all industry stakeholders. We are closely monitoring the upcoming vessels with arrival dates this week, which include; CMA Medea, Hyundai MOL Courage, MSC Elena and SM Tian Jin.
The ILWU job action may result in unavoidable demurrage and detention or other unforeseen costs as the strike continues. Should extra costs be incurred as a result, they will unfortunately be for the account of the cargo, and will be passed on to customers accordingly. In the meantime, we will be working with carriers and making every effort to mitigate any extra costs.
At this time, empty container returns continue to flow to the Container Yard Terminals, however without normal flow from the ports, and depending on the duration of this job action, these terminals may reach capacity challenges.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the ContainerWorld Forwarder who looks after your product for the trade lane relative to your question.
We will provide further updates as they are available. If you have questions about the strike, please contact jeff@ablebc.ca.