Congestion Building Up At European Ports

Rationalisation of vessel schedules has led to further congestion issues at North European ocean freight terminals, as carriers continue to reduce port calls in order to improve journey times to and from Asia.

Many shipping lines have been reducing their calls, as Asia/Europe round trips have been taking up to 50 days longer this year.

However, this practice has led to further pressure on base ports, such as Rotterdam and Antwerp, which are now congested and subject to further delays.

The rationalisation of schedules has also led to some services not calling directly at UK ports, including the announcement this week that many 2M Alliance vessels will be omitting Felixstowe. This means that containers will need to be transferred from Antwerp using smaller feeder ships.

With space aboard feeder ships being in extremely high demand at the moment, and Antwerp being one of the European ports worst hit by congestion issues, this is likely to mean significantly increased transit times, especially for imports.

Jenkar are continuing to work extremely hard to mitigate supply chain issues during these challenging times. If you require any further information regarding the above, then please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.

Team Jenkar