Congestion worsens! 328 ships are affected by the congestion in 116 ports around the world! Congestion and rising freight rates will continue into the first half of next year

Port congestion spread to the world, and more and more container ships on five continents are waiting for berths to dock. A map released by seapexplorer, a container transportation platform created by logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel, highlights the current ultra-high pressure scenes in various container ports around the world.

Due to port congestion, up to 10% of global shipping capacity has been consumed.

According to the latest statistics, 18 ships lined up off the coast of Los Angeles, waiting for an average of nearly 5 days for berths. According to data from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, containers stayed at the Los Angeles-Long Beach Terminal for an average of 4.76 days in June, up from 3.96 days last month.

Mario Cordero, executive director of Long Beach, said that the port will enter the peak import season later this month as retailers restock for back-to-school shopping and year-end holidays. It indicates that it will not be possible until the end of the year to move towards a certain normal state.

Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Port Authority, said that strong demand for imported goods may continue until 2022, as companies scramble to rebuild inventories during the uneven rebound of the epidemic. This situation continues until the Chinese New Year, and there are now many signs that this situation may exceed the Spring Festival.

The container port from Seattle to Charleston, South Carolina has a record high volume of freight this year, and many ports are flooded with cargo, so that ships have to pay the price for waiting for berths to dock. Tight capacity has pushed ocean freight rates up to four times the pre-pandemic rate.

At the same time, due to the influx of cargo from China, Vietnam and other ports in Asia, the terminals have been overwhelmed, storage space is exhausted, trucks and railroads are tight, and congestion on the west coast has become more serious. Union Pacific temporarily suspended container rail transportation from western ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach this week to clean up containers near Chicago. (View article: From August 15th, HPL will impose a value-added surcharge of $5000/carton on the U.S. Line! Import transshipment on the U.S. West Railway will be suspended for 7 days)

Turloch Mooney, deputy director of maritime and trade at IHS Markit, said: “The situation has not improved and it is worrying.” “The reliability of the shipping schedule is still far below the level before the epidemic. Considering the rapid growth of freight volume, many terminals are operating at full capacity, and With the continuing problem of equipment repositioning, it is difficult to see a substantial improvement in the situation in the short term."