CONGESTION is growing at container terminals worldwide as shippers prepare for months of delays as the annual peak season gets underway, reports Singapore's Splash 247.
Top ocean forwarder, Switzerland's Kuehne + Nagel says congestion has increased in recent weeks, according to its Global Disruption Indicator that notes waiting times at major ports.
The K+N indicator notes that one 10,000-TEU ship waited 12 days, showing delays of 120,000 TEU waiting days. Global TEU waiting days stand at close to 9 million. It rates one million TEU waiting days as normal.
Global supply chains are having to factor in myriad headaches, high freight costs, congestion at terminals and inland, an earlier peak season, and the resumption of manufacturing at many Chinese locations where production has been severely disrupted this spring thanks to strict Covid lockdowns.
According to Descartes Datamyne figures, Chinese origin shipments declined almost six per cent in this year's January 1 to May 29 period to the top five US west coast ports, compared with the same months last year, clearly showing the impact of Covid lockdowns on some of China's largest industrial hubs.
The knock-on effect saw the busiest US ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach experiencing China box volumes drop five per cent and nine per cent respectively.
The average time boxes wait at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has surged recently, and reached 9.6 days in April, the highest level since July 2021, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.
While data from Hong Kong's Freightos shows that average China-US ocean transit times have steadily fallen by 12 per cent since the start of the year, the freight platform's head of research, Judah Levine has warned this week of growing problems behind the quayside.
'With warehouse space already scarce and renewed rail backlogs a growing problem, there are fears that a new surge of containers could once again lead to packed container yards and erase the recent gains,' Mr Levine said.
'Congestion has worsened during the lockdown at major European hubs as warehousing and labour shortages have led to container yards clogged with imports,' he said.
Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight rate platform Xeneta, told Splash that shippers should be 'quite worried' as congestion would keep rates elevated, even if actual consumer demand was falling.
Also, the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) have recently started to rise again after months in decline.
SeaNews Turkey
Top ocean forwarder, Switzerland's Kuehne + Nagel says congestion has increased in recent weeks, according to its Global Disruption Indicator that notes waiting times at major ports.
The K+N indicator notes that one 10,000-TEU ship waited 12 days, showing delays of 120,000 TEU waiting days. Global TEU waiting days stand at close to 9 million. It rates one million TEU waiting days as normal.
Global supply chains are having to factor in myriad headaches, high freight costs, congestion at terminals and inland, an earlier peak season, and the resumption of manufacturing at many Chinese locations where production has been severely disrupted this spring thanks to strict Covid lockdowns.
According to Descartes Datamyne figures, Chinese origin shipments declined almost six per cent in this year's January 1 to May 29 period to the top five US west coast ports, compared with the same months last year, clearly showing the impact of Covid lockdowns on some of China's largest industrial hubs.
The knock-on effect saw the busiest US ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach experiencing China box volumes drop five per cent and nine per cent respectively.
The average time boxes wait at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has surged recently, and reached 9.6 days in April, the highest level since July 2021, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.
While data from Hong Kong's Freightos shows that average China-US ocean transit times have steadily fallen by 12 per cent since the start of the year, the freight platform's head of research, Judah Levine has warned this week of growing problems behind the quayside.
'With warehouse space already scarce and renewed rail backlogs a growing problem, there are fears that a new surge of containers could once again lead to packed container yards and erase the recent gains,' Mr Levine said.
'Congestion has worsened during the lockdown at major European hubs as warehousing and labour shortages have led to container yards clogged with imports,' he said.
Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight rate platform Xeneta, told Splash that shippers should be 'quite worried' as congestion would keep rates elevated, even if actual consumer demand was falling.
Also, the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) have recently started to rise again after months in decline.
SeaNews Turkey