Congestion problems are coming back to haunt major ports, reaching critical levels in Singapore according to market analysist Linerlytica’s report on the negative effects that re-routing ships to the Cape of Good Hope is having on cargo supply dynamics.
Longer east-west sailing times has led to visible disruptions in the logistics chain. In the Asian port, the second largest in the world in terms of the container volumes, there are 27 ships waiting to berth, with a total capacity of 188,000 TEUs. Vessel delays were up to seven days last week.
In Shanghai, there are 51 ships in the outer harbour, with a total of 331,000 TEU waiting to be unloaded. In the Chinese port of Qingdao, there are as many as 59 boxships i.e. 226,000 TEUs in the roads.
Last week, congestion problems took 440,000 TEUs off the market
Translation by Giles Foster
