17 Jul European Ports Congestion Persists
Ports across Europe will continue to face disruption with little improvement anticipated for the months ahead as container yards are full at main hubs and ships arrive outside their berthing windows.
With several important ports across Europe operating at their maximum capacity and container ships facing long waits, the worst of the congestion appears to be at the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg.
Barges are waiting an average of 66 hours to load containers at Antwerp and 77 hours at Rotterdam, whilst ships are unloading between 3-5 days behind schedule at Antwerp.
The current level of congestion is the worst Europe’s supply chain has experienced since the pandemic and can be attributed to a combination of factors such as intermittent industrial strikes, the realignment of alliances between shipping organisations and changing trade flows in response to Trump’s tariff policy , as well as restricted loading of barges on the Rhine after a dry spring left the water unusually shallow. Further compounding this congestion issue is the increased import volumes from Asia, with total Asia-Europe volume increasing by 9% year over year to reach 6.13 million TEUs.
It is expected that if no further disruptions arise, the landscape should stabilise towards the end of August which is the end of the peak season.
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