Mr. Müller-Blech, 62, is the Christmas King of Germany, importing mass-produced decorations from Asia, which he has been crafting for 13 generations, along with hand-made glasswork in the West.
Müller-Blecht’s slow and costly global voyages of baubles, trees and ornaments show how every aspect of international transport is under strain ahead of the busy Christmas season.
The onset of the pandemic and the resulting slowdown in trade idle ships, which were out of position with their containers when consumer demand boomed this year. The continuing COVID-19 outbreak has meant workers missed shifts, closed some port terminals, kept truckers at home and slowed cross-border activities. The program was further disturbed by the blockade of the Suez Canal in March.
Around the world, toy makers, booksellers, large retailers and manufacturers are already warning that some products will not be in time for Christmas, while additional shipping costs and delays are adding to the bills of both buyers and sellers. .
For Mr Müller-Blecht’s Inges Christmas Decor GmbH, the cost of renting a 40-foot container from Asia to Europe has increased 10 times to $18,000, and is delayed by eight weeks. His shipment at the Christmas Haus store in Gettysburg was due to arrive at the port of Baltimore in June. It departed Germany in late August and arrived on Tuesday. Now it’s on a truck.
When Mr. Müller-Blech was a child, he helped with the family business, and every day was Christmas. Many of the traditions now known as Christmas hail from West Germany. Today, Müller-Blecht runs a museum in his hometown of Neustadt bei Coburg in central Germany, dedicated to the history of Christmas decorations, and ships about 4,500 types and models of decorations to 2,500 customers in 28 countries. Last year they sold about 15 million tree baubles.
Festive decorations will normally appear on the shelves of some stores by the end of this month, but only about half of Müller-Blecht’s annual merchandise will be arriving for customers.
“Everything has changed,” Mr Müller-Blech said of the impact of the pandemic. “You just go to work in the morning, you turn on your computer, and then well, great, there’s another delay.”
This year, Mr. Muller-Blech doesn’t think his business will profit.
Christmas Haus store owner Roger Lund usually needs all his festive goods to arrive by June so he can make time to warehouse, catalog, and put decorations and toys on sale before the rush of shoppers online or in stores. to prepare for beginning of October.
“There is a hiccup in the shipping industry, and everything is slow and things are not working as normal,” said Mr. Lund.
His shipment from Mr Müller-Blech and others was due to reach Gettysburg by truck on Tuesday. But Mr. Lund was told this week that his forwarders could not find the right type of truck to carry the goods, meaning further delays.
He laughed, “It goes on and on and on. You have to laugh, because there’s nothing you can do about it.”
As of Friday, there were 600 large container ships waiting to dock outside ports in Asia, Europe and North America, and delays for ships arriving in US and Canadian ports from the Far East increased from 14 hours in June of 2020 to nearly 10. has occurred. day this August, according to eeSea, which provides data on the container market.
Global airfreight rates this month more than doubled from 2019 levels, with some companies deciding to put their luggage on planes instead of ships, according to Clive Data Services, which provides industry pricing data.
COVID-19 has also led to a severe shortage of truck drivers in the Western world, which has also increased the cost of transporting goods by road.
In June, Yantian’s port terminal in southern China closed after at least one worker tested positive for COVID-19. For Mr Müller-Blech, that added nearly three weeks to the delivery of 40 containers that were already delayed by about five weeks.
“The cases get confirmed and two hours later, they change again,” he said. “As long as the containers are on the ship and as long as that ship is in port, you can only talk, talk and wait.”
Since ports operate at precise times, delays on one terminal cascade down to others when a container ship misses its slot to berth. The ship carrying Mr Müller-Blech’s order departed from Yantian late, leaving him to wait an additional week for a new position outside Hamburg, he said.
There is almost no part of the transport system that is not facing problems. With so many delays in port, Mr Müller-Blech recently decided to ship six of his containers by train from southern China via the Trans-Siberian Express and into Germany. The route adds an additional €500 to the cost of each container’s journey, but is a week faster than travel by sea. Then in late summer German rail workers went on strike, with freighters leaving containers sitting in a Chinese railway station for two weeks, worried they would have nowhere to go once at their destination.
“I had extra costs, and an extra wait,” he said.
Even after the cargo reaches Germany, they face a second trip for European customers and another round of delays, thanks to the same shortage of truck drivers that has affected the US from Mr. Müller-Blech’s warehouse to Italy. A shipment of decorations would have taken up to four days, now it’s about 10 days.
Recently, Mr. Müller-Blecht got some good news from a German forwarding company—with one caveat: There were trucks in it; But can Mr. Müller-Blech provide a driver?
“No, not at all,” he said. “It’s a very different business to decoration.”
Mr. Muller-Blech is not the only one to struggle.
Some US retailers are warning that some artificial Christmas trees may sell out quickly because deliveries have been hit by overcrowding; They are increasing prices by 20% to 25% to keep pace with skyrocketing shipping costs.
Major companies including sportswear maker Adidas AG and British retailer Tesco plc have also warned of product shortages during the holiday season.
Book publishers, who may account for 40% of annual sales in the fourth quarter, face the prospect of a potential bestseller stuck in warehouses. According to Ingram Content Group, a Tennessee-based book industry services company, some publishers have postponed the release of major titles until after the holidays.
Mr Müller-Blech says his life has become one of late nights and constant email checking. Like Santa Claus, Claus Müller only stops working for the actual day of Christmas. He says he doesn’t remember as much about Christmas Eve this year as he does this year.
“I will be very happy when it is December 24th,” he said.
Mr Lund has been working with Mr Müller-Blech for over 20 years and says he does not bother too much, including these delays.
“He has a long-term outlook, his family has been doing this since 1597,” he said. “Christmas is in their blood.”
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