Container shortages, delays beset shipping industry as ‘ripple effect’ of Suez Canal blockage continues
- More than three weeks after the skyscraper-sized Ever Given was freed from the Suez Canal, major ports are struggling with a backlog of vessels
- Some carriers are skipping port calls in Europe to avoid congestion, contributing to container shortages in other parts of the world, including Asia
Delays caused by last month’s Suez Canal blockage are forcing shipping carriers to skip port calls and prioritise returning empty containers to Asia, disrupting business in both Europe and Asia, according to industry insiders.
Rotterdam, a major port city in the Netherlands, is expecting 15 ships this week carrying a total capacity of 196,600 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which will line up behind 85 that are there already, according to Project44, a logistics service provider. The shipping delay on the Shanghai to Rotterdam route is currently close to a week, compared to the median level of 2.79 days last year.
The ripple effect of the Suez [incident] would be ships out of their normal pattern [of sailing], not calling where they should be calling, not picking up empties where they should pick them up
That has caused pain for some European importers, as their goods have required extra shipment between European ports. It has also upset some European exporters, who have had bookings rejected by carriers that are prioritising moving empty containers to Asia as quickly as they can.
