Container port delays: Queues at ports mount pressure on supply chains

Delays are currently commonplace in the container freight market, with schedule reliability currently around 40% for vessels arriving on time, and the average delay of shipments globally around five to six working days, market sources said in the week to Aug. 25.

This has stretched supply chains around the world, and made worse by port closures due to COVID-19 outbreaks, such as Yantian in May, and the Ningbo port in August. As a result, many ships have been diverted, so as to omit these port calls, resulting in queues building up at ports around the world.

According to Platts cFlow trade-flow analytics software, the most highly-impacted ports in North America are the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in California which, as of Aug. 24, had 36 container ships waiting to berth and offload cargo. This was expected to grow to an all-time high of over 40 in the coming weeks.

The Port of Savannah in Georgia also has 14 ships in the queue, according to Platts cFlow.

Source: Platts cFlow

The Los Angeles port data for August showed that 90% of vessels headed straight to anchor, joining a queue averaging 7.8 days of anchor time.

In Europe, Rotterdam still saw the longest queues for ships to berth. It is also the largest port in Europe by volumes handled, according to Eurostat data.

Source: Platts cFlow

The container rates have been volatile year to date, amid logistics-related delays such as the grounding of the Ever Given in March. The resurgence in COVID-19 cases in Yantian in May had also tied up containers, resulting in a lack of equipment and higher global freight rates.

This was further exacerbated by delays in returning empty containers to ports once they have been unloaded and taken inland, amid lower staffing levels at warehouses around the world. This also left fewer empty containers in circulation, with demand far higher than supply in the first half of the year. This meant the rates were at over 11 times the levels seen the previous year.

PCR1 - North Asia to North Continent - was assessed at $17,000/FEU on Aug. 24, up from $1,525/FEU in the previous year.