Hi there, Welcome to Supply Chain Radar!

This week we talk about pirates, bogus fees, and supply chain delays, but before all that, let's give a major shout out to Amazon & Rivian, who have successfully launched the first fleet of electric trucks.

Amazon aims to have 100,000 of these trucks by 2025 in order to be carbon neutral by 2040. With such a big number as a target, some experts are wondering about Rivian’s ability to deliver, considering the chaos that ensued during the production of Rivian’s own pickup truck.

But in our expert opinion, this will be great for Amazon’s Drivers. Rivian’s innovations in car interiors have been amazing; there will be more than enough cup holders for Pee Bottles, at least for those that have not been fired yet.

Onto the neeewwsss!!!

• A Pirate’s Life no more.
• Port of New York/New Jersey’s “container imbalance fee” Could be Counterproductive
• (Yet Another) Supply Chain Delay?

2022 has, thus far, been a tough year for shipping. To be fair, the ’20s in general, have been a dumpster fire. But hey... at least there’s fewer pirates? Well, not really, but fewer recorded attacks at any rate. So far, 2022 has had the lowest recorded number of pirate-related incidents seen since 1994. While the year isn’t up yet, it does look promising.

By and large, the decline can be attributed to the efforts of the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which has raised awareness about the dangers and made global waters safer.

“Not only is this good news for the seafarers and the shipping industry, but it is also positive news for trade which promotes economic growth,” said Michael Howlett, the Director of IMB. “But the areas of risk shift, and the shipping community must remain vigilant. We encourage governments and responding authorities to continue their patrols which create a deterrent effect.”

Click here for some present-day pirate statistics and to learn more about the IMB.

The container imbalance has been an ongoing issue since the first of the COVID lockdowns. Ocean carriers have been placing their focus on lucrative export contracts from Asia, leaving the United States with an imbalance of empty containers that are doing little more than gumming up the works for overly-busy ports.

In an effort to address this issue, the Port of New York and New Jersey announced that a new quarterly fee would be put into effect on September 1, 2022. This new fee will target carriers that leave empty containers stored in ports for too long.

“The fee will reduce the number of excess empty containers dwelling at the port and free up much-needed capacity for containers that are full of imports and ready to be picked up by cargo owners.” a press release from the Port Authority of NY/NJ said.

While it looks good on paper, this plan may not have been as well thought out as the Port Authority might think.

Learn why these new fees could hurt more than they help.

To say that China’s response to the US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visiting Taiwan was poor was much like saying water is wet. In addition to condemning the visit, China announced that they would be conducting “long-range live fire” military drills near Taiwan, which aren’t scheduled to end until next week.

As a precautionary measure, tanker vessels and carriers transporting liquid natural gas (LNG) which rely on the Taiwan Strait as an easy means of transportation will now have to reroute and take a longer but arguably safer route, which could tack on an extra three days of transit time. This is in the midst of an already prolonged energy crunch.

Learn more about the potential delay here.

🙉 How Santa might choke the supply chain this year

🙈 No. It doesn’t make any sense here, either.

🙊 An accidentally “evil” genius

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