About 12% of global container capacity is unavailable due to delays from congested ports, Lloyd’s Loading List reported Oct. 4. The report, which references an analysis by supply chain research firm Sea-Intelligence, said the amount of additional capacity needed to meet global shipping demand is “being outstripped by the amount of capacity being held up out of service as it awaits berthing slots.” That adds up to global delays for about 3.1 million 20-foot equivalent units, the report said. The amount of “capacity absorbed by delays” had peaked at 11.3% in February before falling to 8.8% in April, but it has since peaked beyond the previous high point, the report said.
Maersk plans to reduce port calls in northern Europe in a bid to improve its reliability on its Asia-North Europe route, The Loadstar publication reported Sept. 27. The shipping company announced the change due to delays along the shipping route, “network disruptions” and “strong” demand, which has “hammered our schedule reliability,” Maersk said in a Sept. 27 alert. “Maersk will rationalize some of our service coverages to reduce the number of port calls to improve reliability,” the company said. “We advise customers to plan their supply chains well ahead, particularly for the upcoming holiday rush.”
The Federal Maritime Commission met virtually with the European Union and China this week to discuss competition issues affecting the shipping industry, including disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials discussed bottlenecks in the ocean-linked supply chain, how they each have responded to those challenges and “possible actions” to help the shipping industry. “Today’s session of the Global Regulatory Summit provided key competition authorities responsible for the oversight of the container shipping industry the opportunity to share information about what their respective monitoring and enforcement regimes are observing in the marketplace and compare conclusions about carrier behavior,” FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei said.
Global container dwell times remain high as the peak ocean shipping season approaches, and ports in South China remain clogged, which could spill over into the next few months, Crane Worldwide Logistics said in an ocean market update released last week. The company said it expects “disruption” among South China ports to extend to the end of 2021, but said progress is being made at the Port of Yantian in Guangdong, China, which has recently seen yard density drop 65% and productivity increase to 85% of normal levels. But other ports in South China remain clogged because of canceled port calls at Yantian, which “are still on the rise by carriers,” Crane said.
The White House is nominating Max Vekich to serve on the Federal Maritime Commission.
The National Retail Federation seeks a meeting with President Joe Biden to address the congestion at key U.S. maritime ports that’s “causing significant challenges for America’s retailers,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay wrote to the White House June 14. The congestion has “added days and weeks to our supply chains,” leading to “inventory shortages impacting our ability to serve our customers,” Shay said. The delays “have added significant transportation and warehousing costs” that many larger retailers can absorb, but smaller retailers “may have no choice but to pass along these costs” to consumers, he said. Retailers continue to work with the ports and transportation providers to resolve the congestion, but “[w]e need strong leadership from the administration to galvanize attention to the current situation as well as work to resolve long-standing issues that limit safe and efficient port operations,” Shay said. The White House didn’t comment.
A new container terminal at the port of Charleston, South Carolina, is the first container terminal to open in the U.S. since 2009, the South Carolina Ports Authority said April 9. The authority said the terminal was “20 years in the making” and expects it to offer some relief to highly congested container ports around the country, which are struggling to handle unprecedented levels of cargo. The first vessel arrived at the port last week.
Shipping price tags will remain high for the next 12 months as large manufacturers and retailers lock in the higher prices with ocean carriers for yearlong freight rates, Bloomberg reported April 11. For the past several months, the price to ship a container of goods from China to the U.S. West Coast and Europe has been near a record high, with conditions primed for even more increases.
Maersk reduced its Spot online booking service as it assesses the impact of last month’s Suez Canal blockage on global shipping and supply chains, the company said in an April 5 advisory. The reduction is expected to affect exports from Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, Maersk said. The company wants to “ensure that what we sell to our customers, we can deliver.”
The Federal Maritime Commission will begin issuing information demand orders to ocean carriers and terminal operators to determine if they are violating detention and demurrage practices, the FMC said Feb. 17. The orders will be sent to ocean carriers operating in an alliance and calling at the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach or the Port of New York and New Jersey, and will require them to provide information on how they impose detention and demurrage charges, and their policies related to container returns and container availability for exporters (see 2012090009), the commission said.