*** Newsflash *** Coronavirus Pandemic Disruptions

Weekly summary 25/2020

Weekly summary 26/2020

Weekly summary 27/2020

Noteweorthy: In Germany, VAT rates were temporarily reduced from 19% to 16%.

Weekly summary 28/2020

Please note: For the UPS special line, you need to factor in 40-50 days just for transportation.

Weekly summary 29/2020

Please note: For the UPS special line, you need to factor in 50-60 days just for transportation.

Good news for EU customers: The UPS special line is still working at a similar speed as before the pandemic (4-5 weeks for international transit, customs clearance, and freight forwarding).

Sandro

Hi,

things from spring 2020 start to repeat.

• air freight costs keep climbing (e.g. Fedex, DHL Express);
• the UPS special line slows down (expected transit time to EU: 40-45 days instead of about 30;
• the alternative method by train is more often used (expcted transit time to EU: two months and up)

That means that many orders which are placed in late November and early December 2020 will be delivered shortly before Chinese New Year holidays (February 2021).

Hi,

let's resume doll tracking to get proper data.

Quite some good news from the last batch, mostly ordered around end of October and beginning of of November. That was before the 2nd wave of Coronavirus lockdowns.

Case 1: Doll House 168 DH20-80/E with Shiori head, order placed on Nov 4th. Doll departed November 14th (~10 days lead time to make the doll) and traveled with the DHL special line. Arrived in Europe and cleared customs on Nov 30th. Delivered in Germany on Dec 1st (transit time, customs clearance and freight forwarding ~2 weeks = excellent).

Case 2: Doll House 168 DH20-80/E with Shiori head, order placed on Nov 8th. Doll departed November 18th (~10 days lead time to make the doll) and traveled with the DHL special line. Arrived in Europe and cleared customs on Nov 30th. Delivered in Finland on Dec 1st (transit time, customs clearance and freight forwarding ~2 weeks = excellent).

The DHL special line uses a gateway in France which is very fast. Both dolls took less than a month from placing the order until delivery.

Case 3: Xycolo XC-153/A with Nao head, order placed on September 8th. Doll departed October 26th and traveled with the UPS special line (still by air freight). Arrived in Europe and cleared customs on November 28th. The two-part shipment is currently in the process of delivery in Germany.

Case 4: Xycolo XC-153/A with Nao head, order placed on September 30th. Doll departed October 24th and traveled with the UPS special line (still by air freight). Arrived in Europe and cleared customs on November 28th. The two-part shipment is currently in the process of delivery in the Netherlands.

Cases 3 and 4 are both silicone dolls, one with a non-trivial hybrid configuration. Dolls like this take longer to create than (partially pre-produced) TPE dolls, and the packages are much bigger than for cases 1 and 2, so the UPS special line is required. Though, the the total waiting time between ~3 months (case 3) respectively ~2 months (case 4) is still within acceptable range.

So those are the lucky ones which got their dolls without excessive delays.

It will be most interesting to monitor the dolls which have departed in November and are affected by the 2nd wave of lockdowns.

Hi,

OK, we have some data for a shipment from November.

• Doll departed with air freight from China on November 12th.
• Destination is Finland, EU.
• Shipment cleared customs on December 21st and is now forwarded by road.
• ETA is December 29th.

So the November shipments seem to take around 6 weeks for transit.

For shipments departed later, things will get slower because of tightened Corona lockdowns plus the usual Black Friday/Christmas freight volume.

The shipment to Finland was successfully delivered on Dec 29th, 2020.

The total waiting time from order until delivery was about 7 weeks.

The next shipment departed from mainland China on Nov 26th, 2020. This package is currently still in transit.

Also, for those who are still worried to get infected woth COVID-19: Prophylaxis is possible. Also, treatment is possible.

• COVID-19 treatment and prophylaxis - How to avoid infections and deaths

And for those who are trying to make sense how this pandemic could happen the way it did, here is a little background information:

• Pandemic planning exercises 2001-2019

Sandro