Exports from Malta are facing disruption after a major transhipment hub in Germany was closed due to COVID-19 contagion among staff, Express Trailers have said, highlighting the impact of the virus on supply-chain management.
The Lufthansa hub in Frankfurt, one of the largest in the world, has ground to a halt and cannot operate until next week, meaning the manufacturing industry will suffer, said Express Trailers chief commercial officer David Fleri Soler.
The transit embargo through Frankfurt will last a week, causing problems for local exports through Germany on to the Far East, the US and other European countries, he said.
The leading transport and logistics operator, Express Trailers, connects Malta to mainland Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, China, North and South America, the Middle and the Far East.
“This is yet another COVID-created supply-chain management problem,” Fleri Soler said, adding it even impacted imports.
Among the goods that are exported out of Malta are semiconductors, perishable items like fish and pharma products, he listed.
Freight that has not yet been delivered can no longer be accepted by Lufthansa Cargo and transported in a timely manner, it told Express Trailers in a communication, recommending the cancellation of shipments.
It put the blame on the Omicron variant, saying the Frankfurt hub was now “painfully feeling the increased infection incidence in the area”.
The hub is expected to be operational by February 1, but even though the closure was short, Fleri Soler said it would be disruptive – and this could be “major” for technology, microchip and automotive companies.
Times of Malta had highlighted in November how the pandemic-induced global shortage of semiconductor chips was impacting various industries worldwide, in particular car-making and, consequently, local car importers, as the supply of microchips was failing to meet demand.
Thousands of chips are integrated into each of the billions of electronic devices used across the globe.
Fleri Soler said the COVID-related closure would result in delays as well as in difficulty finding alternative routes that come with higher costs.
The amount of goods transported by air freight is minimal compared to sea and road freight – amounting to about one per cent, he acknowledged.
But air freight has been suffering a lot due to the pandemic, with capacity in the industry reduced “quite substantially”.
“Malta’s connectivity to the outside world relies on passenger planes being able to carry cargo, but these have decreased drastically because of COVID-19.
“There are fewer flights and mainly low-cost airlines, which do not carry cargo in their belly,” Fleri Soler continued.
The effect on the consumer was not major, but the manufacturing industry was being impacted, he said.
The skyrocketing costs of international shipping have been making the headlines since the start of the pandemic, leading, together with a host of other factors, to increases in the price of products across the board and most notably food.