Shipex

WORLDWIDE IMPACT OF PROBLEMS AT PORT OF YANTIAN - UPDATE 2

Dear Customer,

We refer to earlier communication on the congestion problems at the Port of Yantian due to an outbreak among dockworkers. In the meantime the problems at one of the busiest seaports in southern China have led to global shipping delays.

Port operator Hutchison announced that Covid-19 is now under control in the port area and that they would resume normal operations these days, after weeks of disruption. “However the backlog of containers stranded at the port could take weeks to clear”, according to The Loadstar.

“Poor schedule reliability is driving up port congestion at North European hub ports”, says JOC, “with delays in vessel handling forcing carriers to temporarily cut certain key ports out of their Europe rotations”.

Several carriers have adjusted their sailing schedules for the next weeks. The 2M Alliance (Maersk and MSC) already earlier decided to omit the port of Hamburg on one of their loops (until the end of July), while MSC also announced on the 23th of June “to adjust her sailing program on its Asia-Europe network to match the actual departure dates in Asia”. Shipping line Hapag cancelled their call at the port of Rotterdam for one of the Far East services “due to the ongoing congestion situation”.

At the port of Antwerp, both DP World and PSA Terminals implemented a ‘Yard Opening Time’, restricting the time to gate in full containers. In combination with constant changes of sailing schedules (and thus closing and ETS of vessels), this results in many last minute changes of the load planning for shippers.

We hope it’s clear that this is out of our control and would like to thank you for your understanding.

For more detailed information on your shipments, please contact your account manager.