Port congestion and shipping delays are still the main theme of the shipping industry in the past two years. At present, the processing rate of containers in the west American port has been greatly improved, while the route network in northern Europe has been seriously affected.

Alphaliner, a shipping analysis agency, said that at present, the route service between Asia and Northern Europe can not maintain the normal shipping schedule. The carrier needs to add three ships in each loop to maintain the weekly frequency.

The agency investigated the delays of many voyages to and from Nordic ports. According to the survey results, the accumulation of containers at the wharf and inland traffic congestion have led to considerable delays for shipping companies on this route.

Alphaliner said the situation had worsened compared with the delay last year. For example, ships on the Asia Europe route returned to China nearly 20 days later than the scheduled time on average.

"Now ships spend most of their time waiting for available berths. Coupled with the high density of storage yards at the wharf and inland transportation bottlenecks, port congestion is becoming more and more serious."

"At present, the super large container ships on this route take an average of about 100 days to complete a complete round-trip voyage, which means that shipping companies are not allowed to cancel some voyages because there are no ships available."

Some data show that the shipping schedule reliability of ocean union route is relatively the highest, with an average delay of 17 days; The average delay is 19 days, followed by 2m; The alliance operators had the worst performance, with an average delay of 32 days.

"From arrival in Rotterdam to departure from Hamburg, it takes 36 days to unload and load at the three major container ports in Europe," 

Alphaliner said It pointed out that the alliance shipping company has the longest ship delay, "because they strictly abide by the shipping schedule and didn't skip any ports".

In response to alphaliner's survey, a carrier said that the increase in the stay time of imported containers was due to the shortage of labor and truck drivers in Nordic ports.

It is reported that in early April, the CEO of Rotterdam Port Authority said that there were 8000 job vacancies in Rotterdam port alone. The port is the largest container port in Europe, and the number of vacant posts has quadrupled in just a few years.

Alphaliner warned that "as large terminals are blocked by containers, ships have to wait at the anchorage". After the closure of the epidemic, the surge in Chinese exports may put additional pressure on Nordic ports again this summer.

GLA Family reminds cargo owners and freight forwarders that if goods are sent to Nordic ports for loading and unloading, they need to pay close attention to the logistics situation and contact the shipping company in time. Reduce or avoid losses caused by delay.