Overuse at container yards at northern European port terminals and inland land transport bottleneck worsens port congestion problems in trade between the Far East and northern Europe, says Alphaliner.
Container ships deployed on this route currently take an average of 101 days to complete a round trip. This means it takes an average of 20 extra to get to China for their next full trip, forcing shipping lines to schedule blank trips as there is no trip availability on time.
This situation has gotten even worse over the past few months, as Alphaliner had previously reported delays averaging 17 days in November last year and again 17 days last February.
In order to have real metrics of the itineraries of the ships in these services, Alphaliner carried out a review of departures and arrivals of ships in these services and presented us in detail their findings:
When the 20,170 teu MOL TRIUMPH left Qingdao on February 16 for THE Alliance ‘FE4’ circuit, it was expected to arrive in Algeciras on March 25 and depart. Northern Europe headed back to the Far East in Antwerp on April 7, reports Alphaliner.
The ship arrived in Algeciras on April 2 and called at Rotterdam (April 12-15), Antwerp (April 26-May 3) and Hamburg (May 14-18). The ship will finally set sail from northern Europe this week 41 days late.
The time required for unloading and loading at the three largest European container ports was a total of 36 days between arrival in Rotterdam and departure from Hamburg. Said delays cannot be compensated for by sailing at full speed towards the Far East.
Likewise, Alphaliner confirms that in terms of round trip duration for all ships arriving in central China in the first half of this month (May 1-15) from northern Europe. Best performance went to two CMA CGM ships that arrived just a day late in Shanghai after skipping their respective calls at Busan (23,112 teu CMA CGM CHAMPS ELYSEES — Service ‘FAL1’) and Qingdao (17,292 teu APL MERION – Service ‘FAL3’ ) .
The average delay of the twelve OCEAN Alliance ships arriving in Central China in the first half of May was 17 days, compared to 15 days last February and just nine days in November 2021.
The biggest delay (36 days) was for the 23,992 EVER ACE deployed on Evergreen’s ‘CEM’ service (also known as ‘NEU6’) as the ship lost precious time in Europe with calls in Rotterdam (unloading 6-9 March), Felixstowe (March 13-16), Hamburg (March 24-28) and again Rotterdam (loading from March 29 to April 1).
Now, Alphaliner mentions that only four ships reached Central China of THE Alliance ex North Europe during its review period. They also excluded THE Alliance’s Europe-Asia-US West Coast pendulum services ‘FP1’ and ‘FP2’ from review, as their Asian focus is on Japan and Southeast Asia, not China.
The average delay of these four arrivals was 32 days, compared to 36 days in our last two surveys. However, they still excluded the 23,792 teu HMM ROTTERDAM which arrived in Shanghai on May 17 (outside the review period) 44 days late. THE Alliance ships continue to have the longest voyage times, strictly adhering to their schedules without skipping any ports.
2M partners Maersk and MSC are also suffering from rising wait times in Europe, with average travel delays rising from 15 days last November and February to 19 days.
A spokesman for one of the 2M members confirmed that the problems occur mainly in European ports. The lack of port labor and the shortage of truck drivers has led to longer dwell times for import containers in Europe. As the big terminals fill up with containers and because of that, the ships have to wait at the anchorage.
Contrary to some recent media reports, the lockdowns in Shanghai have not made the situation worse. The port of Shanghai has remained operational and export volumes to Europe have decreased as less cargo is delivered to the terminals.
However, Alphaliner clarifies that a potential boost from Chinese exports to Europe after the lockdowns could add unwelcome additional pressure on Northern European port and terminal systems once again this summer.
Source: Alphaliner
