In Europe, materiel sent by ship is being subject to delays, because when COVID first hit, shipping movements reduced drastically, with the result that many container ports had a surplus of empty containers and no ships to move them to where they could be filled. The recent surge in shipping activity has resulted in ships arriving to unload, but with little space to stack their cargo because so many empty containers were in the way. Consequently unloading slowed to the pace that offloaded containers could be moved directly out of the ports by road transport. The result is that ships are queuing at anchor awaiting a berth, and empty trucks are queuing to enter the ports to pick up containers. When a ship is empty, it may sail away without waiting to pick up a full load of empty containers, because it is more profitable for ship owners to sail empty to a port that has full containers to be transported. Meanwhile, exports from China are stalling because there are too few empty containers at Chinese ports. Many containers destined for UK have instead been offloaded at large ports such as Antwerp in Belgium, and so shipping agents then have to arrange for its onward movement to UK. All, of course at vastly increased cost; some containers at Antwerp may have to wait a month or more before they can be sent on. It's not that the US will be hit directly by this problem, but that materiel in containers destined for the US may just be caught in one of these queues. Lynx have advised me that my order is on its way, but whether it will experience a direct route to a UK container port or will come by van via a ferry port will depend on the shipping agents' information from day to day, and so may suffer some delay.
MJB