Port congestion has returned to haunt the container markets, with Singapore becoming the latest chokepoint. Berthing delays at the world’s second largest container port of up to 7 days with the total capacity waiting to berth rising to 450,000 teu in recent days. The severe congestion has forced some carriers to omit their planned Singapore port calls, which will exacerbate the problem at downstream ports that will have to handle additional volumes. The delays have also resulted in vessel bunc
Initial ports data for September suggests cargo volumes have already started to drop ahead of the Chinese holidays in October, confirming the weak peak season trend this year. Container volumes fell month on month across the 4 main Far East ports that have published their September volumes so far at Shanghai, Singapore, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, with the falls ranging from -2.8% to -4.5%. Despite the reduced MoM volumes, they were mostly still ahead of the same period last year with Shenzhen in p
Container volumes recovered slightly in May, with flash estimates showing a 1.4% month-on-month increase over April although it is still 1.6% lower compared to the same month last year. Year to date growth remains negative at -1.8% over the first 5 months of the year. The Indian sub-continent was one of the key bright spots with May volumes up 9.8% yoy. The 2 main Indian ports of Mundra and Nhava Sheva both recorded healthy volumes with YTD volume growth reaching 8.0% and 6.3% respectively. S
The top 3 ports in the world all reported improved throughput volumes in May, with Shanghai retaining the top spot at 3.4m teu last month for a 10.3% MoM rebound.