Excavator update

Like most people, I think, when I ordered something on the internet from China through web sites such as Amazon, Aliexpress and Temu I had no idea of the intricacies of the logistics involved in getting the goods from wherever they were manufactured and into my post box. Watching the progress of my new mini excavator while it wends its way from China to Marseille has been a complete eye-opener for me and made me appreciate the complexities of what’s actually involved.

My excavator has been packed in a wooden crate which has been loaded into a 40 foot container which has itself then been loaded onto a container ship, the CMA CGM Cedrus. The complexities start from that moment on. The CMA CGM Cedrus will be calling at several ports between China and France at which containers will be offloaded and new ones taken on. My excavator’s container will remain on board to the ship’s final destination so it won’t matter if it’s on the bottom of a stack but there will be many others that will need to be accessible for offloading as required at intermediate destinations. And given that a ship like the CMA CGM Cedrus carries several thousand containers at any one time, merely loading them in the necessary order must represent quite a logistical challenge.

There’s also the problem of scheduling. Huge container ships like the CMA CGM Cedrus can’t just turn up at a port and expect to moor up to unload and take on containers. From what I’ve seen all the ports it has visited so far have been full and another vessel has not long departed vacating a berth before the CMA CGM Cedrus has arrived. This is probably not surprising given the need to maximise the usage of the huge investments in port infrastructure and ship arrivals have to be scheduled well ahead not only because of the need to ensure a berth is available but also to minimise port charges by avoiding delays. And has also been pointed out to me, arrangements also have to be made well in advance for a pilot and tugs to be on hand.

So what came as some surprise to me is that as I mentioned in an earlier post, although the route schedule of the CMA CGM Cedrus has not been formally amended, a change has actually been made. After departing Shekou in China it was then scheduled to route directly to Singapore with an ETA of 30 January. That ETA remains unchanged but instead of routing directly, its schedule was amended to include a stopover in the port of Vung Tau, one of the areas of Saigon Port, the rapidly expanding port area of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam with an ETA of 08.00 am local today, 28 January.

The CMA CGM Cedrus departed Shekou at 02.26pm local on 24 January so it had plenty of time to get to Vung Tau and indeed at one time it appeared that it could arrive a day early. However, from what I’ve said above, this wouldn’t be feasible so when I checked yesterday I found that it had come to a halt with engine stopped and probably anchored for the best part of a day off Vung Tau in the South China Sea.

When I checked again later today I expected to find the ship moored up in Vung Tau as indicated by its revised schedule.

However, to my great surprise, this was not so. Instead it was moored in Cai Mep, one of the other areas of Saigon Port slightly further inland.

It arrived today 28 January at 09.03 pm local time. I have no idea, of course, what is going on, whether containers are being loaded, offloaded or both, but what I do know is that for now, anyway, its scheduled ETA at Singapore is still 30 January. I would imagine that to meet this timing it will need to leave Cai Mep either in the early hours tonight or some time tomorrow, so I’ll be interested to see if that is so when I check tomorrow. But I’m finding it interesting looking a bit behind the scenes and am a bit gobsmacked by the probability that what is happening with the CMA CGM Cedrus is happening with thousands and thousands of similar vessels shipping goods all over the world.