BRITISH ports of Felixstowe and Southampton are likely to send more mega ships away to other hubs in north Europe as the two UK ports are struggling to cope with the annual peak season spike in traffic.
One unnamed carrier told London's Loadstar all its UK calls would come 'under the microscope' this month on account of the deteriorating quay and landside congestion.
'We can't afford to have our ships sitting at anchor for days and then being forced to cut and run when we eventually do get alongside,' he said.
The Ocean Alliance partners are cancelling the planned call of the 20,388 TEU Ever Goods at Felixstowe in the first week of October, resulting in 3,000 import containers being transhipped at Rotterdam, which could hold up their arrival on UK retailers' shelves by several weeks.
THE Alliance members pulled the September 27 call of the 20,180 TEU MOL Truth at Southampton, diverting it to London Gateway for import discharge before it heads on to Hamburg.
Other north European ports and beyond are also reeling under the effects of the congestion problems at the UK ports.
'It's incredible the impact of this on north European shipping trades; carriers, consignors and even terminals have been affected by the Felixstowe failure. I never thought that my firm's container throughput might be affected by the capability of another terminal to implement in good order a new TOS [terminal operating system],' Salerno Container Terminal manager Giuseppe Lamberti said.
Felixstowe's IT problems that started in June have led to a number of ship diversions and even the temporary transfer of services to other ports.
Arguably, the problems at Southampton can be tracked back to the issues at Felixstowe, however it has also underscored the additional difficulty container ports have in handling off-window mega ships since the terminals have to handle more containers on each call, which 'increases the peak and through effects,' according to OECD's Olaf Merk.
Furthermore, studies by the International Transport Forum (ITF) reveal that the arrival of a mega box ship is 'associated with higher yard occupancy, more feeder traffic and truck and train movements,' noted Mr Merk.
By 2025, some 10 per cent of all containerships will have a capacity of at least 14,000 TEU, according to the ITF.
One unnamed carrier told London's Loadstar all its UK calls would come 'under the microscope' this month on account of the deteriorating quay and landside congestion.
'We can't afford to have our ships sitting at anchor for days and then being forced to cut and run when we eventually do get alongside,' he said.
The Ocean Alliance partners are cancelling the planned call of the 20,388 TEU Ever Goods at Felixstowe in the first week of October, resulting in 3,000 import containers being transhipped at Rotterdam, which could hold up their arrival on UK retailers' shelves by several weeks.
THE Alliance members pulled the September 27 call of the 20,180 TEU MOL Truth at Southampton, diverting it to London Gateway for import discharge before it heads on to Hamburg.
Other north European ports and beyond are also reeling under the effects of the congestion problems at the UK ports.
'It's incredible the impact of this on north European shipping trades; carriers, consignors and even terminals have been affected by the Felixstowe failure. I never thought that my firm's container throughput might be affected by the capability of another terminal to implement in good order a new TOS [terminal operating system],' Salerno Container Terminal manager Giuseppe Lamberti said.
Felixstowe's IT problems that started in June have led to a number of ship diversions and even the temporary transfer of services to other ports.
Arguably, the problems at Southampton can be tracked back to the issues at Felixstowe, however it has also underscored the additional difficulty container ports have in handling off-window mega ships since the terminals have to handle more containers on each call, which 'increases the peak and through effects,' according to OECD's Olaf Merk.
Furthermore, studies by the International Transport Forum (ITF) reveal that the arrival of a mega box ship is 'associated with higher yard occupancy, more feeder traffic and truck and train movements,' noted Mr Merk.
By 2025, some 10 per cent of all containerships will have a capacity of at least 14,000 TEU, according to the ITF.