Euro Ports Congested Before Peak Season Arrives

Concerns over Asia/UK supply chains are mounting, as ocean freight ports on the continent are heavily congested prior to the start of Asia’s peak season.

Despite Springtime being traditionally slow and Chinese production being down due to Covid outbreaks, major European ports such as Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam, remain heavily congested with the busy period to come.

The issue has been blamed on the number of blanked sailings during recent weeks, with almost a third of voyages being cancelled. This has led to a huge build up of empty containers and leftover export boxes.

In addition, long term storage space has been taken up by thousands of blocked Russian containers, while the ports are still trying recovering from high volumes and backlogs during the pandemic.

The issues have been escalated in German ports that have recently been affected by industrial action, with the threat of further stikes to come.

The congestion in Europe could heavily impact UK bound shipments that do not call directly at our ports, which incidentally are still struggling to clear congestion themselves.

The Jenkar team are closely monitoring the situation. Should you require further information, or details of our extensive range of ocean freight services, then please do not hesitate to contact us.