Covid-19 outbreak and the impact on UECC’s liner trading network – General update

Almost three weeks have passed since the last time we issued our last general update, and an update is therefore in order.

We hope that you, and your loved ones, are staying safe and well during these extremely difficult times. At UECC one of our main priorities is to ensure that our staff remains in good health. However, as the reality of the situation takes shape, unfortunately like many others, UECC has taken the difficult decision to place many of our hard-working employees on a temporary leave. In addition, we have had to idle and layup vessels due to the significant drop in cargo volume, which we rely upon to maintain our regular service.

We are approaching the end of April, which has been one of the most challenging months we have experienced in UECC since the global financial crisis in 2008/2009. As mentioned above, the majority of the cargo volume has disappeared, and this combined with the extremely low freight rate levels, is placing UECC is in a very challenging situation.

Although we continue to see encouraging messages from the OEMs about plant re-openings, the harsh reality is that any form of stable shipping volume will be very low for the foreseeable future. In this respect, we ask for your cooperation, patience and understanding until we can reasonably re-start our liner trading network. As you can appreciate, UECC will not be able to provide the same sailing frequency and transit times as we were able to offer to our customers prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

In order for UECC to ensure some reliability in these uncertain times, it is paramount that our customers communicate with us their reliable volume forecasts as promptly as possible to ensure we can meet their needs and recommence our liner trading network. Without this, UECC operates with a significant level of uncertainty which we must protect ourselves against.

UECC will continue to operate our scaled down liner trading network until further notice. Due to rapid schedule changes, as a result of the extreme volume volatility, we are unable to publish our fleet schedule at this time. We therefore strongly urge you to please contact your Key Account Manager, or your regular contact at UECC, who will provide you with the fleet schedule details where practically possible. In addition, we welcome any other shipping requirements you may have, and we will work together to find a solution.

UECC stands by its’ corporate values of Unity, Energy, Challenging, and Commitment and together with our customers’ support we will continue to live by these values even in these challenging times.

We thank you for your support and understanding. Please contact us any time should you have any questions regarding UECC’s activities – we are here for you!

Sincerely,
For UECC

Bjørn O. Gran Svenningsen
Director Sales & Marketing
Phone: +47 90 16 04 55
E-mail: bsv@uecc.com