Typhoon appears, careful shipment

Every summer, there are typhoons that scare the shipping industry. The tempestuous typhoon brings great loss of life and property to the coastal areas. It also brings great troubles to cargo owners, shipping lines and freight forwarders.

What impact will the typhoon have on shipments? When the typhoon makes landfall, the relevant ports stop working and the voyage schedule will delay, cargo is likely to be directly immersed in the water, damp or damaged and so on. Here are photos and descriptions to show the typhoon's troubles for the shipping industry:

Due to the impact of Typhoon No. 7 "Weipa",Chiwan, Shekou and Yantian container terminals released yellow warning. All the container operations at the gate were stopped, and the Dachan Bay terminal also stopped the empty container service, and the Shenzhen port was closed for one day. These led to the centralized return containers to the port and extract containers from the port, which made a heavy traffic on each road into the port on 1st August when ports opened the gate. It's normal to be stuck for seven or eight hours on the road!

Typhoon "Weipa" caused blockage of Shenzhen's inbound road container fleet

Typhoon "Lekima", the No.9 typhoon, began to affect Shanghai and Zhejiang provinces, on Thursday evening, August 10, and continued through the weekend. Shanghai and Ningbo shipments were unexpectedly affected. The shipping lines issued a notice on the 7th August, stopped releasing S/O on the 8th, and did not accept all the container-type requirements for changing the pick-up point from the dock. At that time, the container could not be picked up or returned. In order to avoid the impact on the picking up of the containers. During the typhoon, the relevant staff were actively informed to pick up the containers at Yangshan wharf on 8th ASAP.

In order to minimize the damage caused by typhoons to the shipping industry, shipping lines, freight forwarders and cargo owners need to take certain defensive measures:

1. Before the typhoon strikes, the shipping lines will take effective measures to protect the port and navigation in advance, stop the dock operation,delay the shipping date appropriately, which will result in demurrage fee and container detention fee and so on, at the meantime will lead to the congestion of the port access road before and after the typhoon. The extra cost caused by the container cannot enter the dock or board the ship due to typhoon doesn't need to be borne by the customer.

Water operations and passing ships in the relevant waters shall return to the port to take shelter from the wind, reinforce port facilities, and prevent grounding and collision of ships by anchoring.

2. The freight forwarder will also timely send a notice to the consignor/consignee, so that they can cooperate with the relevant operations before the terminal stops working, to avoid the customer's concern about the transportation of the goods or the work schedule affecting the effective time. Reduce customer concerns about the goods and avoid work schedules that affect effective time.

3. As for the consignor and consignee, they should be as patient as possible, reasonably arrange shipment, purchase All Risk insurance for their cargo accordingly, pay close attention to their cargo dynamics, keep close contact with the freight forwarder, and try their best to cooperate with the instructions and arrangements of the freight forwarder and the shipping line.

This summer is coming to an end, I hope that this year's typhoon is also. No matter how choppy the typhoon is, G.H Forwarding has more than 27 years of freight forwarding experience, can keep calm in face of danger, do its best to handle shipments properly for customers, and provide customers with the confidence and trust. There is such a saying " Special reporter for Typhoon Day ", then " Special freight forwarder for Typhoon Day ", you can choose G.H Forwarding.

作者: Aria
Oversea Business Team
E:Aria@nbguohua.com

The 7th GLA Conference in Cambodia

G.H Forwarding are attending the 7th GLA conference held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia 24-26.June.2019. And we have a booth with a professional team of 6 people to sincerely invite and make a conversation with all attendees so that we can develop together in the future.

There is a picture of our team members who represent our company.

Our team actively and enthusiastically exchanged discussions with participants and access to a wide range of business information in the conference which is more than 500 logistics industry experts and international logistics entrepreneurs from more than 60 countries.

Our team members wear red polo shirts with our company logo so that it is really easy to identify in the crowd.

Our team is always ready to welcome all exhibitors who come to communicate. And they discuss the various possibilities actively and eagerly to improve relationship and develop together.

Even if it is the second time to take part in GLA conference, we are also excited from the cocktail event to walking into the hall for the opening ceremony. The conference is also full of joy, the organizer arranged cocktail parties, coffee breaks, welcome dinners and more. In any case, it is the perfect combination of China and the West.

The GLA conference help enterprises to broaden our domestic and overseas markets to the greatest extent and gain opportunities. G.H Forwarding will continue to actively attend the conference related to international shipping, and work hand in hand with domestic and overseas logistics companies to reach a larger, higher and deeper level in the future.

Please feel free to contact us and let’s see how we can develop together.

Rainy Season in Guangzhou.

“Another day off I take, I guess the sun had the same idea and now we have a break. It’s a rainy day, but I love it.”

 

The water comes down, the forecast is a thunderstorm warning every day, the sun take a month off in Guangzhou, should we still love it???

 

People “swim” to work !

Scooters “floating” on the streets!

The Canton Tower playing hide and seek!

Do you know what?

Right now Guangzhou is doing its magic!!!

News
At half past three on 5th May, the feeder, named “Yue Qing Yuan Huo 6289” from Zhuhai to Yanan, sunk because of heavy winds and rainstorm .

After receiving the report, the Zhuhai Maritime Safety Administration urgently dispatched a maritime law enforcement ship named “Hai Xun 09172” to the scene of the distress and quickly organized the rescue.

At half past four, three distressed crew members successfully rescued!

Warning
The maritime department reminded that at present, Guangdong is suffering from thunderstorms and windy weather, and the sea conditions are complicated. All ships should pay close attention to weather forecasting and early warning measures to ensure the safety of navigation operations.

We just want to ask, when are you going to stop raining?

Happy 2019 Annual Dinner in Ningbo

Time flies and a new year comes. Looking back in 2018, under the leadership of the company and the unity and cooperation of all employees, all departmentshave worked hard and tried their best to achieve the target. 2018 is a meaningful, valuable and rewarding year.

 

In order to celebrate the start of a new year in the Chinese calendar and also to enhance group cohesion, every year G.H forwarding flies all employees to Ningbo to attend the company annual dinner with the theme “Unity isStrength” on the evening of 23rd February, 2019.

 

So employees from Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou and also Vietnam flew over to participate!  Similar to last year, half of the 200+ people that attended we employees and the remaining half are our distinguished guests, local partners and shipping lines whom we work with.  It’s also a time for us to give thanks for their support throughout the year.

 

Throughout the dinner there were performances from 5 different departments and also games which required participation from the audience.  All in all it was a fantastic evening.

 

Let us review some of the wonderful moments together!!

Our lovely chairman, Mr. Zhou lingfeng

A special present for our client

A traditional song of China “The unity is strength” sang by all Customer service team

Our Southeast Asia group’s show: Knocking drums and singing

Russia team and Import team were dancing together

Beautiful song by Vietnam branch office

An interesting game in annual diner

The lucky game winner got the lucky money

Toasting together

Our general manager with black T-shirt thanking for all colleagues

Guangzhou branch office

Russia team with our chairman

Welcome to 2019!

 

Hope we can grow together and get more business in 2019!

The Spring Festival in China

This year, the Spring Festival (otherwise known as Chinese New Year) falls on 05.Feb.2019 in China and if you are familiar with China, you will know that there is an official week long public holiday from 04-10.Feb.

In the Shipping & Logistics Industry

For those of us in the shipping and logistics industry, it means that the world’s largest factory will be shut down for over a month since a lot of factories will close and allow workers to celebrate the year’s most important public holiday in full.

Any last minute shipments being ordered now will be faced with a scramble for overbooked vessels.  As truck drivers prepare to go back to their home towns, the ones that remain to earn a bit more before leaving, will charge an extra premium for service since they know there will be a shortage of drivers.  It’s ironic, but there will be no shortage of trucks for shipments, but there will be a shortage of drivers.

On a lighter note…

Here are some things that you may not know about the Spring Festival holiday in China:

1. It is observed on a different date every year

There’s no set date for the Spring Festival as its set according to the lunar calendar and lasts from the 1st (according to the lunar calendar) until the 15th which will be a full moon.  Typically, Chinese New Year ranges between 21.Jan to 20.Feb every year.

2. The most fireworks are set off that night in the world!

According to a Chinese myth, a monster called Nian (年,the Chinese word for year), would come around every Chinese New Year’s Eve and everyone would be so scared, they would stay inside their homes.  However, there was a boy who was brave enough to scare him off with firecrackers.  The next day, everyone celebrated with firecrackers and the practice became a important part of Chinese New Year celebrations.

3. But it’s not legal everywhere…

In recent times due to safety concerns and also pollution, more and more cities in China have been banned from using fireworks, more than 500 cities have restrictions too.

In Beijing, it was banned for 13 years, however the people eventually reacted negatively to this and it was eventually lifted in 2006.

If you happen to be in China during Chinese New Year, you will notice that during the celebrations, there’ll be at least 3 days where you hear a lot of fireworks going off.  Sometimes this can last for weeks depending on where you are.

4. It’s the longest and most popular Chinese holiday

In different parts of China, celebrations can go on for up to 40 days – mostly in the rural areas, people will celebrate it for longer.  Traditionally, it’s a time spent with family and you only really go out to meet other people after the 5th day.  You will notice a lot of shopping malls closed during this time.

The closest thing that Western culture has to this is Christmas time where people will move heaven and earth to get home for that Christmas meal with family.  Chinese New Year is like an extended version of this.

5. It’s also a time to eat, eat, eat…

Traditionally, you should be eating dumplings every day – however with all the delicious food available, nowadays people rarely do this.  Most however, still eat dumplings for breakfast or for the New Years Eve dinner.

6. The largest human migration in the world

Every year during this time marks the beginning of the world’s largest human migration as everyone makes their way home from their place of work to be with their families for the New Year’s Eve dinner.  Most elderly parents live in rural villages while their children go to the cities to work and hence everything stops in China as masses of people make their long journey home.

Train tickets are only available 60 days before departure, so you can imagine the rush to get tickets.  In 2015 it was recorded that 1,000 train tickets were sold every second in the New Year rush.

7. No showering, throwing out garbage, or sweeping

You cannot shower on New Year’s Day, nor can you sweep or throw out garbage before the 5th.  You make up for this by having a big spring clean of your home before the new year – this is geared towards sweeping away all the bad luck and making room for good luck in the new year.

Other things considered as “taboo” during the new year includes:

– Having a haircut

– Using scissors or other sharp items

– Swearing or arguing with others

– Saying or talking about negative/unlucky topics like “death” and “sickness”.

– Breaking things

8. Giving and receiving “lucky money” in little red envelopes/packets

You will see a lot of this happening if you are in China.  Children are given red packets which contain money which is supposed to help transfer fortune from elders to Children.  They can also be given between bosses, employees, co-workers and friends.

As a general rule, technically if you’re married, you should be giving red packets to those who are not married yet.  Though aside from the exceptions mentioned above, elders will still give to their sons, daughters and those who are younger and close to them even if they are already married.  Those providing a service e.g. security guards working in your apartment complex, compound or workplace will also be given some from the people they may see every day.  So during this time, you will notice that they are extra nice with their service to you during this time.

So I hope you now know a bit more about the Spring Festival and Chinese New Year.  Finishing off this article with how Chinese New Year ends… with the first full moon of the new lunar new year.  This is celebrated as the Yuanxiao Festival (元宵节) or Lantern Festival.

It is a night of partying and freedom – but not in the way we understand these words nowadays.  In ancient times, girls weren’t allowed to venture outside by themselves, however on this day, they were allowed to do so, so many would walk around outside to enjoy the atmosphere and gaze at the beautiful full moon and lanterns which are hung out everywhere.  For this reason, it is also known as Valentine’s Day in China.

If there is a Chinese New Year celebration where you are this year, you can attend the celebrations knowing that bit much more about exactly how to celebrate it correctly 🙂

References:

1. Chinese New Year Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

2. 21 Things you didn’t know about Chinese New Year:https://chinesenewyear.net/21-things-you-didnt-know-about-chinese-new-year/

Continue reading “The Spring Festival in China”

The highlights of 2018

2018 was a great year for our company, we have grown in every aspect, but most of all we have grown as a team.

 

The company is nothing without the people in it so here we take a look at the highlights of each of our offices throughout 2018.

2018 Ningbo Run in New Year

Ningbo Annual dinner and party in 2018

Beautiful Womens day

Ningbo headquarter made a sightseeing tour

Shanghai branch office had a nice spring tour

Guangzhou branch office had a sea adventure

Qingdao branch office had a outing in May day

GLA conference in OCT. in Shenzhen

Our Vietnam branch office is 1 year old

Team building weekend in December

Christmas party and Merry Christmas!

So 2018 was a hard working but fun packed year.

 

I’m sure 2019 will be an even more exciting and challenging year!

 

Let’s see what we can achieve together!

Professional Logistics for Southeast Asia from GH Forwarding!

GH Forwarding was established in 1992, we have more than 25 years experience in this industry. Southeast Asia is always our focus area since it’s such a place full of potential.

Southeast Asia is a critical part of the world trading system, a wide range of commodities originated in this region. With such rich resource, Southeast Asia is a treasure land for a lot of industries, full of business opportunities. Good transportation and the trend of globalization make the logistics industry develop more and more rapidly in this area.

In order to follow the “Belt And Road” policy, our GH Forwarding sincere hope we can have more interaction with Southeast Asia agents and India, Bangladesh agents. Hopefully we can have a long term cooperation and communication. GH Forwarding, always your reliable partner in China.

We regular work with shipping lines below:

Of course we are not limited to these shipping lines, just at your requests. Feel free to contact us, we will show you what we’ve got!

-DDU, DDP terms.

-Import&Export.

-Sea, Air and Railway.

-Direct booking agents of several shipping lines.

-Competitive Tier 1 rates.

-Quality Customs Services.

 

We are always ready for you. GH Forwarding, your agent in China!

China will import more Tropical Fruit from the Philippines

On 20th  Nov 2018, President Xi paid a state visit to the Philippines. This is the second visit of the Chinese head of state 13 years later and also the first visit of President Xi to the Philippines. Therefore, this state visit is a milestone in enhancing China-Philippines relations.

So what can we benefit from the visit this time? Let me tell you more about it! A statement has been issued by China and the Philippines on 21st Nov. China will speed up the process of certification and expand the import of more the Philippines tropical fruits and other high-quality agricultural products. That means we can enjoy more delicious fruits with high quality from the Philippines!

GH forwarding has been working on the import logistics from the Philippines to China for over 3 years now! No matter the delivery or the local port services and customs clearance, we can provide you the most suitable services. We are proud that we can be a part of it to develop the economic and trade development between China and the Philippines, and also appreciate that we can get support from our best clients! Let’s progress together!

The 2nd China(Ningbo) International Shipping Logistics Fair

The 2018 “Belt and Road” Port Cooperation Summit Forum & The 2nd China(Ningbo) International Shipping Logistics Fair will be held in Ningbo during 10th Dec – 12nd Dec. The theme of this fair is “Active Integration Into The Belt And Road Linking China Connecting The World”. More than 300 overseas agents and over 500 domestic agents will take part in this fair. It would be a great chance for all of us to develop business together and have a further connection with each other.

Meanwhile, GH Forwarding will also be at the fair as an exhibitor. We sincerely invite you to visit our booth, the booth No. Is 5B105. We can have more communication with each other.

GH Forwarding was established in 1992. It is authorised by the Ministry of Commerce as a Class 1 booking agent in China, also a certified NVOCC, authorised by China’s Ministry of Communications. We are offering a comprehensive set of services within China. Main business scope includes Sea freight, import and export customs clearance, inland delivery service, bonded warehouse, cargo insurance. Also a direct booking agent of Shipping lines like MSK, SEALAND, CMA, ANL, CNC, COSCO, YML, HEUNG-A, SKR, HMM, SASCO, FESCO.

Further more, we are members of WCA and JCTrans(GCP) with strong overseas network resources. Our headquarter is in Ningbo with Branches in Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Vietnam, covering the basic ports in China and Vietnam which means we can help you to handle shipment from most of the areas in China. We are your strong and reliable partner in China!

Don’t hesitate to visit our booth, we will be waiting for you 🙂

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