25 July 2024 Windward
Last week’s events once again proved how quickly the global supply chain can become unlinked, if only temporarily (this time).
Container terminals at ports around the world were shut down following the Crowdstrike global IT outage. Some companies operating at these ports were also affected. Oil facilities and a power station near Hodeidah port in Yemen were bombed, sparking fears of additional Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea.
And two large oil tankers collided near Singapore, the world’s biggest refueling port, with one of the vessels behaving in an extremely suspicious manner pre- and post-accident.
Crowdstrike Bug Temporarily Strikes Down Ports Worldwide
“Planes and cargo are not where they are supposed to be and it will take days or even weeks to fully resolve,” Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at supply chain consulting firm Xeneta, said in a statement shared with CNBC. “This is a reminder of how vulnerable our ocean and air supply chains are to IT failure.”
The Crowdstrike software bug crashed Microsoft operating systems, causing the largest IT outage in history, and temporarily shutting down ports worldwide.
While air freight was most impacted, major ports – such as the Port of Houston, Port of New York, Port of Los Angeles, and the Port of Rotterdam – reported temporary disruptions, but quickly resumed normal operations. The Windward Ocean Freight Visibility solution found that no significant shipment delays occurred as a result of the CrowdStrike update, after reviewing shipments entering these ports from July 19.
Other ports were affected, with The Loadstar noting that the ports of Felixstowe, Tilbury, and Poland’s Baltic Hub (formerly known as DCT Gdansk), all suffered major IT outages.
2024 has already been a tough year for port congestion, so any disruption could easily cause major issues, according to Emily Stausbøll, Xeneta senior shipping analyst.
“She noted that in May, Charleston Port on the U.S. East Coast shut for two days due to a software failure, which resulted in a port congestion increase of 200%. ‘Port congestion has been a major problem during 2024. While it is now easing, there is no slack in the system and any disruption will push the needle back into the red,’ she said.”
Comments