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New round of congestion delays on the way! Singapore port, Bangladesh's Chittagong port, UK's Liverpool port all jammed...
Mar 12, 2021|
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▍Singapore port is jammed! Container ships wait up to 7 days
Container ships scheduled to berth at Singapore ports are now facing longer waiting times, according to foreign media reports. The berthing time for an 18,000 TEU container ship has increased from a maximum of 2 days to 5 to 7 days.
Container ships increasingly congested at Singapore port
A Singapore freight forwarder has said that the port is becoming increasingly congested with increased waiting times for ships at present. Since September last year, ships calling at Singapore have not been departing on time.
According to PSA International, this particular situation is caused by a combination of factors, including a surge in cargo demand, congestion at all nodes of the global supply chain (including yards, warehouses and ports) due to re-blockades, and a lack of available empty containers.
Business at the Port of Singapore has been on the rise. Data shows that in January this year, the average number of container ships staying in the Port of Singapore for more than two days was 46 per day, an increase of about 59% over the same period in 2020. This number had peaked in November 2020 at 49 vessels, compared to just 17 vessels in the same period in 2019.
The congestion at Singapore port has also directly jacked up freight rates from Singapore to North America. Sources said freight rates from Singapore to the East Coast of North America, including surcharges for priority loading, are around US$10,000 to US$15,000 per FEU, which is around US$6,000 to US$8,000 higher than other major ports in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam.
▍Chittagong port blocked too! Thousands of tonnes of cargo worth Tk 450 million auctioned at port
Despite the fact that Ramadan is still more than a month away, the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh has begun to accumulate containers, causing increasing congestion as goods start to arrive in increasing numbers in the run-up to Ramadan, but importers are not collecting their goods in time.
On 25 February, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) asked importers to remove their goods as soon as possible. It also warned that storage charges would be doubled on the 12th day from the time the containers were unloaded from the ship. However, the warning did not seem to have any effect and on March 2, the CPA decided to adjust the storage charges again with effect from March 8.
Omar Faruk, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), confirmed that slow pick-ups had led to an increase in the number of containers at the port. The situation has started deteriorating since early February when imported goods flooded into the port. According to the CPA's traffic department, the port received an average of 4,500 TEUs per day from ships in the 14 days to February 28. This compares with an average of only 3,500 TEUs per day being shipped from the port.
As on March 1, there were about 40,000 TEU containers in the port, which means that its yard, which stores 49,018 TEU, is 82 per cent utilised.
In addition, Chittagong Customs will auction about 1,050 tonnes of unclaimed abandoned cargo worth Tk 450 million on Sunday. The auction will dispose off about 50 consignments of goods, including 180 motor vehicles powered by gas, 150 tonnes of garment fabrics, 300 tonnes of steel products and 130 tonnes of chemicals. Furniture, plastic products, hand sanitiser, fish and other food items are also included in the list.
Often, importers will forgo pick-ups due to falling commodity prices in the local market, failure to submit original documentation to support shipments, failure to obtain customs clearance and refusal to pay unusual penalties.
▍Shippers and shippers unhappy with Liverpool as UK port congestion spreads north
The severe congestion at the UK port of Felixstowe last December caused shipping companies to divert to the port of Liverpool, which put considerable pressure on Liverpool's land-based operations. However the UK's container ports continue to suffer from congestion and Liverpool has become the latest port to have shippers and freight forwarders under fire.
Shippers serving Peel Ports recently said they had been calling an emergency management meeting since January to address the long delays at terminals T1 and T2. They claim that things have reached a "boiling point" at terminals T1 and T2.
Trying to get containers from the port is a nightmare," said one shipper, adding that trying to get VBS bookings for trailers and enduring long delays in getting boxes is "soul destroying". Customers are angry about uncollectable containers and demurrage charges.
Another shipper said a driver was forced to call the port police to sign his speed ticket print after severe delays at the T1 terminal and an attempt to pick up a box caused him to go over his working hours - a dilemma drivers often face.
"If he had backed out he could have lost his job and trying to get another VBS the next day would have been impossible."
One shipper said the delays had started to have an impact on his business and that he had a considerable number of containers coming through the port.
"We are experiencing significant delays in getting boxes to specific areas and to top it off, shipping companies are levying rental and demurrage charges on us, which is just adding insult to injury." He added that he had recently lost several trailers.
However, Peel Ports managing director David Huck assured customers that the company would get the port's productivity back to normal levels this week.
"Due to peak demand for vessels at the T1 terminal, we are currently experiencing temporarily extended waiting times for trucks."
"These temporary delays are being dealt with carefully and we will be working around the clock to minimise the impact and return to our normal operations as soon as possible within the next 48 hours. it is business as usual at the T2 terminal without any delays.
With capacity doubled since its opening of Liverpool2's £400m container terminal in 2016, Peel Ports has attracted an impressive amount of new business.
In addition, Liverpool secured transferred cargo during the well-documented VBS congestion problems at Felixstowe Port last year and announced in December that it had secured a call on the 2M Alliance TA2 / NEUATL2 transatlantic loop.
David Huck said that last month Containerships, an intra-European container shipping company, launched a new weekly service to Liverpool. The port is aiming to increase its share of the UK container market by 15 per cent to 20 per cent by 2025.
