Felixstowe Port Issues May Further Impact Christmas

The Port of Felixstowe is currently suffering from congestion issues, due to seasonal demand, the driver shortage and the impact of the pandemic, which has raised concerns over products being delivered in time for Christmas.

Containers have been building up at the terminal, which recently led to major carriers, such as Maersk, CMA CGM and Evergreen, being unable to restitute any empty equipment back to Felixstowe.

Vessels have also been queuing outside of port for up to 9 days before discharging, leading to Maersk advising that some of their largest ships will not call directly at the port. This will mean containers being discharged on the continent and transferred to the UK via smaller feeder vessels to ease congestion, but we are also mindful that non direct calls led to many UK products being stranded in Europe during last year’s Christmas period.

The port have indicated that there have been signs of improvement during the past few days. However, with backlogs as they are, the driver shortage ongoing and the busy season being upon us, it’s easy to envisage that stock levels of many products will not meet demand this festive season.

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