Global port congestion picked up last week with rising waiting times observed in Chinese ports ahead of the Chinese New Year, with the longest delays seen at Ningbo where waiting times have stretched to 3 days, with shorter delays seen in Qingdao, Shanghai and some of the main Pearl River Delta ports. Delays at Australian ports remain high at up to 10 days at Brisbane, with slightly shorter delays also seen at Melbourne and Sydney. Congestion at North American ports is limited with LA/LB and N
Global port congestion eased further over the past week, with delays at Chinese ports improving. The intermittent port closures at Ningbo, Shanghai and Qingdao due to weather related reasons have reduced. The delayed arrivals of vessels that were diverted to the Cape route since mid December has also resulted in a lower number of ships at Chinese ports, , resulting in reduced vessel bunching and shorter delays. This has also filtered down to the downstream ports in Asia such as Singapore and Bu
Congestion at Panama has started to ease after THE Alliance cancelled all of their southbound Panama transits on their all-water services EC1, EC2 and EC6 as of last week, with omissions also planned on all of the northbound transits starting from next week onwards. At least 5 of these ships on the backhaul route will be returning via the Cape of Good Hope and avoiding the Suez Canal as well. However, all of the headhaul sailings on the 3 affected all-water strings will still take the Suez Route
The missile attack on NUMBER 9, an OOCL operated ship on 3 December has broadened the threat to all ships passing through the Red Sea, even those that have no links to Israel. Zim has already diverted its ships from the Suez to the longer Cape of Good Hope, while Maersk has also diverted 2 ships chartered from Israeli interests following the attack on the CMA CGM SYMI on 25 November. Among 3 ships attacked in Red Sea the past Sunday (3 Dec), the 4,253 teu NUMBER 9 that was targeted by the miss
The Panama Canal transit restrictions have started to impact containerships for the first time, with a rising number of ships facing delays that are set to worsen over the next 2 months. The limits on vessel transits that have been implemented since 1 November will see the daily transit limit cut from 32 to 18 for all kind of vessels by February next year, with transits for neo-panamax to be limited to 5 daily or 35 weekly. Containerships currently account for 29 weekly neo-panamax transits
Total vessel capacity waiting at ports increased to 1.94m teu or 6.5% of the fleet at the end of last week, with a growing number of ships waiting at Chinese ports. While port operations at Chinese ports remain normal, the rising number of ships waiting was due to scheduled delays for vessels phasing in/phasing out as well as ships entering and leaving drydock in China. The congestion situation in South Africa has continued to deteriorate with delays extended up to 10 days. Total capacity waiti
Carriers have retained their services to Israel and are continuing to accept bookings with the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod remaining open through the week with only minor congestion issues reported due to increased security checks and labour shortages. Congestion in the rest of the Med region also appears to be under control with no vessel build up recorded. Global congestion has continued to ease with only minor delays reports in several hotspots, with Savannah continuing to see the wor
Total containership capacity waiting at anchorages edged up slightly at the end of last week to 1.61m teu or 5.8% of the global fleet with a slight build up of ships in China with the start of the Golden Week holidays. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has reduced the number of vessel passage from 32 per day currently to 31 from 1 November 2023. The current restriction are already reduced from the normal limit of 36 transits per day have been imposed since 30 July 2023. These restrictions have n
Global port congestion has dipped below 5% of the total fleet at the end of last week and is expected to continue to fall over the next 8 weeks, with container vessel traffic at China to slow down for the Chinese Golden Week holidays that will start on 1 October 2023. The fall in congestion in China in October would carry over to the US and Europe with vessel arrivals to be reduced over the coming 2 months. The total containership capacity currently anchored and waiting for berthing at the mai
The severe weather in North Asia and US East Coast pushed up port congestion numbers last week. Conditions across all of North Asia were affected the onslaught of typhoons Haikui in South China and Khanun in Central and Northern China with waiting times of up to 3 days due to the disruptions to port operations in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Kaohsiung, Ningbo and Busan. However, the congestion has already started to clear in North Asia by the end of last week with terminals and gate operations all rep