Shippers need to add two weeks of lead time to their ocean supply chains to account for container ships being rerouted around southern Africa amid ongoing attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to the chief of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
While off-schedule ships are periodically crowding marine terminals, the port is not seeing any major impact from the longer transits as vessels divert from the Suez Canal, Bethann Rooney said.
Speaking at a state of the port event in Jersey City, Rooney, port director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), said Monday that about 45% of the port’s cargo volumes typically move through the Suez Canal, either on both voyage legs or combined with a transit through the Panama Canal.
Rooney added that while the port is expecting a normal year as far as volumes — the PANYNJ’s budget forecast is for 3% growth in 2024 — the diversions away from the Suez Canal and the drought limiting ship transits through the Panama Canal “will surely impact what goes on there on the port.”
So far, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co. have routed four services to the US East Coast offered under the 2M Alliance via the African Cape with two of those still using the Panama Canal for their eastbound trans-Pacific voyage.
THE Alliance members Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express and HMM are using a combination of Cape routings and Panama Canal transits on three East Coast services. Ocean Alliance member CMA CGM has rerouted two Indian subcontinent and one East Asia service via southern Africa.
Ocean carriers have been adding extra loaders and resetting schedules to account for the longer journey around the African Cape. Even so, Rooney said shippers need to plan that any vessel leaving Asia for the US East Coast will be two weeks later than usual due to the Cape routing.
“All of our services that go through the Suez Canal have for the most part decided to go around the Cape of Good Hope,” Rooney said. “That adds between 10 and 14 days to the transit. But it’s at least a consistent addition of that time.”
Some vessel bunching, but no congestion
With schedules in flux due to the longer routes or delays entering the Panama Canal, Rooney said New York-New Jersey marine terminals are sometimes getting hit with more than one ship in the same vessel service at the same time.
The Cape routings “have led to some vessel bunching, albeit pretty mild,” Rooney said. “What terminals are experiencing now as we’re beginning to see these vessels rerouted is a couple of days where there are more ships than they would typically handle.”
However, the vessel bunching is not creating any measurable slowdown at the port. Year to date, the PANYNJ said ships are only having to wait a little over one day at anchorage for a berth. The vessel bunching has also not increased dwell times for import containers and truck turn times at marine terminals.
While the Cape routings have only been in effect for the last month, there has yet to be any wholesale move by shippers back to West Coast ports.
Data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) shows the two East Coast Class I railroads — Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation — handled 365,483 containers through the first four weeks of 2024, down 2.4% from the year-earlier period. West Coast Class I railroads BNSF Railways and Union Pacific Railroad handled 500,534 containers during the same period, up 3.2% from a year earlier.
Ocean carriers are working to smooth out schedules to get back on track with regular weekly arrivals. Maersk said Friday it blanked three scheduled departures between Jan. 10-29 because of “delays affecting performance of our services on Asia to US East Coast trade, resulting in arrival behind schedule of certain voyages.”
Source:
Angell, M. (2024c, January 30). Ny-NJ port chief sees delays, but no congestion, from Suez Diversions. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/ny-nj-port-chief-sees-delays-no-congestion-suez-diversions_20240130.html