Severe Container Shortages Impacting China Ports

As previously reported, capacity issues are impacting ocean freight services from Asia, which has now been escalated in China by severe container equipment shortages.

Market conditions are now resembling the post-pandemic period, with carriers understood to be very short of 40’ HC containers, especially in Northern China.

The equipment shortage is particularly prominent at the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao and Tianjin, along with Yantian in the south. The port of Shanghai is also witnessing congestion and vessel waiting times are reported to be 3-14 days, leading to further disruption of sailing schedules.

Carriers are often having to wait for import vessels to arrive in order to turn empty containers around for export as soon as they are discharged.

It seems inevitable that we will be witnessing some service disruption in the coming weeks and the continuation of rates rising rapidly.

The Cargo Cargo team are working tirelessly to secure and manage space during this challenging period, but must request that customers try to book as early as possible to help avoiding further delays.

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