One of the most critical parts of the Lunar New Year celebration is the incorporation of fireworks everywhere from family events to city-wide extravaganzas. Unlike local events in the United States, the Lunar New Year celebrations in Asia aren’t dependent on imported fireworks. This should make the acquisition and preparation of fireworks displays for celebrations in Asia easy, but when pandemic control measures ramp up, even these local goodies can be delayed or derailed while on their cargo journey.
In a typical year, the Golden Week events of Lunar New Year lead to millions of travelers visiting family and friends around the world but especially in Asia. The event leads to blanked sailings and delays while workers are on holiday but with the Beijing Olympics coming in the same time period and the pandemic raging the delays will be epic.
With borders between Chinese provinces under scrutiny and travel restrictions in the republic already tight, many commuters are working from home – something that isn’t possible for cargo handlers and onsite logistics workers. When added security is in place to protect the athletes and officials for the Olympics, moving around the nation will take longer than before due to screenings and testing requirements.
Operating under a zero-COVID policy leaves little room for improvising solutions against the congestion and disruption. These strict controls are coming urgently upon allegations that one outbreak started because a cargo handler was infected by imported cargo – an as-yet-unproven accusation.
In a global economy ravaged by a pandemic, we’ve all had to learn how to employ creative solutions and react nimbly to changes. Logistics professionals have been thinking outside of the container for over a year as we battle ocean cargo disruption, air capacity vanishing and significant weather disruptions that lead to truck and rail delays – the same issues we’re seeing overseas in both Europe and Asia.
So far, and we’ve checked them all, the only solution to the disruption, whether you’re importing fireworks from China or ordering them locally for your Lunar New Year celebration, is proper planning, flexibility, and leaning on the experts to guide you. We at Coppersmith have over seven decades of experience working with the wildest markets we’ve seen. By investing in improvements and partnerships around the world, we have established a network of peers to help guide, protect and advocate for you and your cargo. If you want to know what we’re doing to avoid delays and support our shippers, reach out to your Coppersmith representative today.
