Tag: <span>International Ports</span>

A rush of cargo in the eastbound trans-Pacific in the aftermath of the 90-day tariff cooldown between the US and China is starting to create vessel congestion and equipment shortages at Asian ports, especially in China, carriers and forwarders say.

Forwarders expect congestion and container shortages to worsen in the next few weeks as carriers redeploy vessels to trans-Pacific services from Asia-Europe trades to meet the increased demand from shippers.

The port congestion in China, not helped by occasional bad weather, is taking out functional capacity at a time when it is needed most.

“Current delays at east and north China ports range from three to seven days depending on the carrier and trade lane,” a spokesperson for FIBS Logistics told the Journal of Commerce. “The situation remains fluid, and there are growing concerns congestion will worsen if more vessels are diverted from Europe to the US in June, as we’ve heard is the plan for some lines…”

Congestion at Shanghai has led shippers and forwarders to divert cargo to alternative ports, especially Ningbo, which is now starting to lead to congestion and equipment shortages there, sources said.

“North China ports are facing increased waiting times due to berth congestion, further impacted by intermittent port closures caused by strong winds and dense fog,” Hapag-Lloyd said in a customer advisory on Thursday.

The carrier said vessels are waiting up to 72 hours to berth at Qingdao and at Shanghai’s main Yangshan offshore port complex due to “heavy vessel bunching and congestion.”

Waiting time at Ningbo was up to 36 hours depending on the terminal.

There are also delays of up to 72 hours at Pusan Newport International Terminal in South Korea and up to 36 hours at Singapore due to vessel bunching, the Hapag-Lloyd advisory said.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) said congestion is also plaguing ports in Japan, especially Tokyo and Yokohama, and was causing lengthy delays and port omissions on some long-haul and intra-Asia services.

Congestion stretches throughout Asia

Maersk is particularly affected by equipment shortages in Ningbo, while “HMM is also reportedly controlling equipment release to match vessel space in Ningbo,” the FIBS spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

Highlighting the surge in cargo, Hapag-Lloyd said last Wednesday it had seen an increase of more than 50% in China-US cargo bookings since the two countries signed a preliminary trade deal slashing tariffs for 90 days following meetings on May 11–12.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: The JOC news

North Europe’s largest port gateways are continuing to struggle with persistent congestion that has delayed vessels and hampered container operations at the hubs for months.

Full container yards, labor unrest, staff shortages and changing carrier alliance networks are among the challenges being piled on top of a steady inbound volume from Asia.

A national strike in Belgium on April 29, the fourth strike in the country within the past few months, shut down the Port of Antwerp for the day as workers from the private and public sectors protested recent budget cuts made by the federal government.

There were 19 vessels waiting to depart from Antwerp on Thursday and 20 waiting to enter the port. SeaExplorer noted that already congested yards there have seen a seven-day average vessel waiting time of about 2.19 days; Scan Global put the seven-day waiting time in Antwerp as high as seven days.

Low-water advisory hampers inland shipping

Labor shortages at Rotterdam because of national holidays are impacting container operations at the port, according to SeaExplorer, with vessels waiting for more than a day to berth. Intermodal operator Contargo told customers in an advisory Wednesday that average waiting times for the handling of barges were 71 hours in Rotterdam and 101 hours in Antwerp.

A low-water advisory is also in place on the Rhine River, limiting the volume that can be carried by barges on Europe’s largest inland waterway connecting the industrial heartland of southern Germany to Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Container delivery restrictions were imposed by Hamburg’s main terminal operator HHLA in April to tackle yard congestion. Vessel waiting times at Hamburg are currently up to five days, according to Scan Global.

On top of ships being delayed in Hamburg, rail shipments are taking up to 10 hours to process and disrupting all terminals in the port.

In France, the Port of Le Havre is struggling to catch up with container backlogs following several strikes held in April, while the UK ports of Felixstowe and Southampton are also experiencing lengthy vessel delays.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source: The JOC news

The Mexican Pacific ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo are experiencing delays of up to five days as they face operational challenges caused by bigger ships calling the gateways.

“A couple of years ago, the biggest ship arriving in Mexico was about 10,000 TEUs,” said Nicolas Portenza, president of Eternity International Freight Forwarder México. “Now you have Maersk, MSC [Mediterranean Shipping Company] and CMA CGM arriving with vessels between 12,000 TEUs and 16,000 TEUs to a port that is the same size.”

 

“I think it will recover during April and May,” Portenza told the Journal of Commerce. “Demand is not weak per se, it’s just not keeping up with the [vessel] supply.”

Still, industry sources are paying attention to talk of even more capacity to come serving Central America and the West Coast of South America (WCSA).

“There is news of new services to Mexico and also to WCSA,” said a forwarder source with cargo on the lane. “It will be a bloodbath if they come.”

Decreasing blank sailings

Meanwhile, the Asia to West Coast South America and Central America lane is positioned for fewer blanks in April as forwarders report green shoots of demand, although it may not be enough to offset the increased vessel sizes and excess capacity.

eeSea as of Monday reports that no blanks are forecast on the lane in April, down from 12 blank sailings in March that accounted for about 12.2% of the total capacity for WCSA imports from Asia. March marked the highest number of blank sailings observed on the trade since September, a likely response to several capacity injections on the lane in the past several months.

According to Eternity International, the Asia to Mexico lane had a total of five blank sailings spread among four carriers in March, although that is expected to drop to three blanks in April, all from Cosco.

Source: JOC

Houthi militants have threatened to resume attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea by midweek unless Israel resumes humanitarian aid and electricity supplies to Gaza that were cut earlier this month.

Speaking during a televised address on March 8, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi set a four-day deadline for Israel to lift a blockade on aid deliveries into Gaza — which have been halted since March 2 — after which time the Houthis would “resume our naval operations against the Israeli enemy.”

The Houthis had paused attacks on international shipping and on Israel on Jan. 19, except for vessels wholly owned by Israeli individuals and/or sailing under the Israeli flag, in line with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that expired on March 1 without being extended or progressing to its proposed second stage.

 

The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to resume Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. Carriers have been diverting vessels around southern Africa since the Houthi attacks on shipping began 15 months ago.

“It has to be safe, and right now it is not safe,” Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), told TPM25.

“It is all linked to a number of agreements in the Middle East that are still being discussed, so for us there will be no immediate return to the Red Sea,” Toft added. “Could it happen next month, two months, six months? I don’t know. Eventually it will happen.”

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Knowler, G. (2025, March 10). Houthi militants threaten to restart attacks on Red Sea Shipping. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/houthi-militants-threaten-to-restart-attacks-on-red-sea-shipping-5959250

The significant volumes of exports that left China in December are continuing to arrive at European ports, compounding existing congestion caused by a series of severe winter storms and labor action at key hubs.

Data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS) shows China-to-North Europe volume in December increased 17.6% year over year to a one-month record of 835,000 TEUs.

“CTS registers those volumes at the time of export, so these containers started arriving in Europe in the second half of January and into February given the current average transit time of around 45 days, contributing to increasing congestion,” Emily Stausbøll, senior shipping analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, told the Journal of Commerce.

Barbara Eleota, senior vice president of ocean freight at DHL Global Forwarding Europe, said the high container volume would increase congestion at some European ports.

”Current delays in North Europe and UK ports, including five to seven days in Le Havre and up to a week in Belgium, are expected to worsen,” she told the Journal of Commerce.

“Customers may experience delays of up to a week, necessitating extended buffer windows in their planning. Ongoing disruptions, such as voided sailings, weather issues and labor challenges further affect scheduling consistency,” she added.

As arrival volume from China rises, strike action at Hutchison Port Delta II in Rotterdam over a new collective bargaining agreement is causing significant disruption, according to Maersk, with a temporary suspension of operations at the terminal adding to the existing congestion at Europe’s busiest port.

“Due to the strike action and slowdown of operations, there will be a reduced number of moves per hour conducted at the terminal for an unknown duration … prolonging the time vessels are operated on and significantly disrupting their normal schedules,” Maersk said in a customer advisory Tuesday.

The carrier said it had contingency plans in place and may offer customers “alternative options” to the Rotterdam terminal.

Extreme weather from the Atlantic moved across the English Channel to mainland Europe in late January with multiple high wind warnings issued in Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Dunkirk in addition to Felixstowe and Southampton. Cargo handling was suspended during the storms and terminals have been scrambling to catch up on the backlogs of containers.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Knowler, G. (2025, February 11). Strikes, storms and record volumes adding to North Europe port delays. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/strikes-storms-and-record-volumes-adding-to-north-europe-port-delays-5942119

A pre-Lunar New Year cargo rush and bad weather causing vessel bunching are congesting major Asian ports, leading to berthing delays of up to five days, carriers and forwarders said.

The worst affected ports include Shanghai, Tokyo, Ningbo, Busan and Manila, although the length of the delays varies by container line, shipping executives told the Journal of Commerce. The congestion comes as European and North American shippers rush imports ahead of factory activity slowing down for 15 days of Lunar New Year celebrations starting Jan. 29.

Ocean Network Express said it is facing operational constraints in Tokyo because the port is “at full capacity” and berths are congested at its capital port and others in Japan, impacting intra-Asia services along with those operating the major east-west trades.

Congestion is also affecting other ports in Japan, which is affecting intra-Asia and east-west services, the carrier’s sailing schedules showed last week.

The carrier has been forced to skip calls at Keelung and Kaohsiung by the 1,708-TEU Swan River Bridge operating on its Japan-Vietnam-Haiphong service to help restore schedule reliability after the ship was five days late berthing at Tokyo last week.

Forwarders said the delays in Tokyo and other ports in Japan have been largely caused by a pre-holiday cargo rush before ports and shipping company offices close from Dec. 27 for the New Year festive break. They are not scheduled to re-open until Jan. 6, carriers said.

“In Tokyo, we are closely monitoring terminal operations as year-end closures approach. ONE has plans in place to minimize potential impacts on our services,” a spokesperson for the carrier told the Journal of Commerce.

Congestion extends to northern China

Shanghai and Ningbo are affected by weather-related delays including strong winds and fog. The current delays have been compounded in Shanghai after its Yangshan deep-water port, about 20 miles offshore from Pudong, had to close due to typhoon Kong-rey in early November.

Kuehne + Nagel said there was heavy berth congestion in Yangshan with ships either delayed or having to wait up to five days last week due to the earlier typhoon-related closure. ONE said the delays at Yangshan were also caused by high yard density.

At Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao container terminals in Pudong about 20 miles from downtown Shanghai, the average seven-day vessel waiting time is nearly three days due to heavy berth congestion at all terminals, according to K+N’s visibility platform SeaExplorer.

“Ningbo is facing approximately 1.5 days of waiting time, mainly caused by peak season congestion and weather factors,” the ONE spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

“The situation is improving at Shanghai and Ningbo after the typhoon, but the seasonal weather is causing delays, which is typical for this time of year,” the spokesperson added.

ONE also highlighted port-congestion-related delays at Busan, Manila and Cat Lai port in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for service disruption and delayed sailings.

FIBS Logistics said Busan is experiencing berthing waits of approximately two days due to vessel bunching and ships arriving late from previous ports. OOCL said Busan has had “winter challenges”.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024a, December 16). Lunar cargo rush, poor weather clog major Asia Ports. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/lunar-cargo-rush-poor-weather-clog-major-asia-ports-5906170

Shippers and ocean carriers using the major Chinese load ports of Shanghai and Ningbo will face extensive disruption due to terminal closures and vessel bunching caused by Typhoon Bebinca, which made a direct hit on Shanghai Monday.

Hapag-Lloyd warned that the berth situation at both ports was “expected to deteriorate further” due to the storm.

The typhoon, the strongest cyclone to hit Shanghai in 75 years with winds of 95 mph, caused extensive flooding and property damage in Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu province as it made its way inland Monday and Tuesday.

Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory Monday that ships were already waiting between 36 and 60 hours to berth at Shanghai and 24 to 48 hours to berth in Ningbo due to vessel bunching ahead of the storm.

Shanghai International Port Group, which controls all the container terminals at the world’s busiest container port, said all its facilities closed Sunday ahead of the storm’s arrival. It said its Yangshan offshore deepwater port complex, about 70 miles from the city center, reopened around midnight local time on Monday.

Cargo operations at its inner-city facilities, including the Waigaoqiao container terminal complex in Pudong and terminals at Hudong and the Wusong port area, were due to restart early Tuesday local time.

Officials at Ningbo-Zhoushan port, the third-busiest container port globally, confirmed the terminal complex closed Sunday and restarted operations late Monday.

Bebinca pounded the Yangtze River delta region about a week after southern China, northern Vietnam and Myanmar were struck by Typhoon Yagi, which closed ports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Haiphong.

Carriers and forwarders said Bebinca hit midway through a three-day public holiday, with offices only expected to reopen Wednesday. Consequently, it was too early to assess the full effect of the storm on cargo movements and vessel schedules.

“Although the typhoon is expected to weaken [Tuesday], logistics and transportation delays are expected to continue after then,” a senior executive at a Shenzhen-based forwarder told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday.

Air cargo operations at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports were also halted Sunday evening after officials closed the two gateways ahead of the storm, although they have since reopened.

Hundreds of flights were also canceled at Ningbo and Hangzhou airports, officials said.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, September 17). Cargo and vessel disruption expected after Typhoon Closes Shanghai, Ningbo Ports. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/cargo-and-vessel-disruption-expected-after-typhoon-closes-shanghai-ningbo-ports-5729174

Ocean carriers and shippers are facing several days’ delays to vessel sailing schedules after typhoon Yagi struck southwest China and northern Vietnam over the weekend, closing ports and hitting cargo shipments.

Exporters in northern Vietnam are facing extensive disruption after the storm, which struck Saturday with winds of more than 120 miles per hour, damaged factories, brought down power lines and caused widespread flooding around the port city of Haiphong.

The typhoon, Asia’s most powerful cyclone this year, also killed at least 60 people in China and Vietnam, according to media reports.

Highlighting the impact on vessel schedules, OOCL said 13 ships operating intra-Asia and longer-haul services calling at Hong Kong, Nansha and Yantian and Shekou in Shenzhen are facing sailing delays of up to two days.

But to mitigate the schedule disruption and port closures, OOCL said the container yard cut-off has been extended by up to four days for some of the sailings to help shippers export their cargoes.

The vessels include the 14,846-TEU CMA CGM Pride operating the Transpacific Latin Pacific 2 loop which is now not due to depart Hong Kong until Wednesday, 48 hours later than scheduled.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) said Monday some vessels calling at Haiphong are facing up to a three-day delay.

These include the 1,708-TEU Pearl River Bridge operating the Japan-Vietnam-Haiphong service, which is now scheduled to call at Haiphong Tuesday instead of Saturday. The vessel has already been held up due to congestion at Busan from the impact of typhoon Shanshan, which hit Japan two weeks ago.

Terminal operators including Hutchison Port Holdings and Modern Terminals in Hong Kong said operations were suspended for about 24 hours on Thursday and Friday.

A spokesperson for the Tan Cang Hai Phong International Container Terminal Company, controlled by the state-owned Saigon Newport Corporation, said the port of Haiphong closed on Saturday and Sunday. The spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce there were no reports of injury or damage within the terminal.

Some companies in Vietnam said it would take at least a month to resume production, while officials said nearly 100 enterprises were affected by the typhoon, the state-controlled newspaper Lao Dong said.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, September 9). Typhoon yagi slams Vietnam, Southwest China, delaying sailings. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/typhoon-yagi-slams-vietnam-southwest-china-delaying-sailings-5723974

Ocean schedules on the main trade lanes out of Asia are set to deteriorate further in the coming weeks following the huge explosion aboard a Yang Ming vessel Friday that closed the Chinese export hub of Ningbo.

The port has been closed “until further notice,” according to Hapag-Lloyd. That will pile pressure on container shipping supply chains still struggling to catch up on disrupted schedules after Typhoon Gaemi blew through the region at the end of July.

Ningbo was closed following an explosion and fire on board the 6,589-TEU YM Mobility that was berthed at Beilun phase three terminal (NBSCT). The ship is deployed on a joint service called CGX by Yang Ming and Asia Gulf Express 2 (AG2) by partners Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE).

“Preliminary findings suggest that an explosion occurred in a container loaded with dangerous goods on board,” Yang Ming Marine Transport said in a statement Friday. The carrier said that according to the shipper declaration, the container was a refrigerated unit being used as a substitute for a dry container without requiring power connection.

“Immediate fire control measures were taken, and the situation is now under control,” the statement said, adding that all crew members were safely evacuated.

A Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce “the situation is still unclear,” but they had been informed the port will be closed “until further notice.”

“Colleagues are in touch with the terminal trying to get an overview what has happened exactly and how this incident will potentially affect the overall port operations going forward,” the spokesperson said.

Delays at a time of peak demand

What is clear is that the closure of one of China’s busiest container ports will add to the schedule disruption already being felt on the main Asian export trade lanes at a time of peak import demand in the US and Europe.

Hapag-Lloyd said its ships were waiting up to four days to berth at Ningbo before the explosion because of bad weather, with Expeditors putting the pre-explosion dwell time at up to nine days, depending on the terminal.

Berthing delays are also affecting Shanghai, Xiaman, Busan and further south in Hong Kong, Singapore and Port Klang, carriers and forwarders said Friday. Carriers have also added extra loaders to call at Hong Kong to pick up transshipment cargo unloaded early in the rotations due to delays at nearby ports, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust said.

“For export shipments, the average waiting time at China’s major ports is three to seven days. It seems that has become normal,” a spokesperson for Hong Kong-based FIBS Logistics told the Journal of Commerce.

Ningbo is one of the main Asian ports on several services operated by the 2M Alliance of Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co., which earlier this week announced rotation changes to Asia-Europe calls amid growing port congestion in both Asia and North Europe.

Ship delays in Asia, combined with the longer voyages around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, are contributing to vessel bunching and extending the bottlenecks through to European destination ports.

“As a result of the exceptional waiting time and congestion faced in North Europe, Maersk will reduce the number of North European port calls by consolidating the Antwerp eastbound and westbound call on the AE6 [service] and the Rotterdam calls between both the AE6 and AE55 onto AE55,” the carrier told customers in an advisory this week. Le Havre will be dropped from the AE7 and AE55 services and added to the AE6.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Knowler, G. (2024, August 9). Ningbo explosion closes port, adds to worsening Asian bottlenecks. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/ningbo-explosion-closes-port-adds-worsening-asian-bottlenecks_20240809.html