ALBA News – February 11, 2021
| February 11, 2021 |
| Tomorrow is the celebration of the Lunar New Year and we wish all of our clients, agents and partners celebrating a very Happy Year of the Ox. Note that because of the holiday, many offices throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and neighboring countries observing the holiday will be closed for periods of time. Please check with your Alba representative for full details or in case you need an answer from one of our staff who are on-call for emergencies. |
| Nitrile glove importers need Alba. |
 Not all gloves are created equal. In fact, the pandemic has created confusion around what is required for gloves that are being imported as PPE or for medical use in vaccination kits. At Alba, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort on the issue and our compliance teams have become very adept at not only helping new and existing clients successfully navigate CBP and FDA requirements, but have also put together a process that speeds them to market after entry. Read more this week on our blog. |
 Carrier reliability at lowest recorded levels. If what has been happening to carrier on-time performance felt like it was significantly off, your hunch is quantifiably correct . Sea-Intelligence has been measuring carrier global on-time reliability since 2011 and their data for December shows just 44.6% of vessels arriving on-time, a decline of nearly a third from December, 2019. |
  CBP’s enforcement efforts through FY 2020 continued unabated, although their product mix certainly deviated significantly with the pandemic. Last week the agency published their annual report in which it detailed agents seized nearly 13 million counterfeit masks, 177,000 test kits and 38,000 chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine tablets that were prohibited from entry by the Food & Drug Administration. Also telling was the significant increase in the total number of de minimis ($800 or less) shipments – an increase of 28% across all modes of transportation.  Many of our clients have filed suit with the Court of International Trade in a case that could see refunds of Section 301 duties paid for imports from China on lists 3 and 4a. Last week, law firm GDLSK reported that the Chief Judge of the CIT, Timothy Stanceu, has assigned the pending court cases to a three judge panel. It is rare that a case is assigned to a multi-judge panel, but the Chief Judge has the discretion to do so when a case has significant implications. To date, more than 4,000 cases have been filed in hopes of securing relief. (Image source: CIT) |
 More records are going to be broken – this time for retail imports. Despite the pandemic, retail sales were up 8.3% from 2019 to a record $789.4 billion according to NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold. Preliminary figures showed 2020 up 6.8% year-on-year. It will be interesting to see how the congestion being experienced in Los Angeles and Long Beach may defer TEU figures for late 2020 and early 2021. |
- Posted by Joe DeSilvetri
- On February 12, 2021
- 0 Comments
0 Comments