Maersk has advised it may have to resort to “cut and run” tactics to make connections at transhipment ports this week, as congestion in East Asia and Africa builds.
Today, Maersk warned customers that it had noted congestion at the Kenyan gateway of Mombasa, due to “higher-than-expected yard density” and “equipment challenges”.
These factors, it explained, meant delays in vessel berthing and departure.
According to the eeSea database, Mombasa has 11 vessels in port and seven waiting to berth. The nearby port of Dar Es Salaam reported nine vessels in port and 20 waiting.
Maersk also advised that was experiencing arrival delays from Far East Asia due to lengthy vessel waiting times at Shanghai, Ningbo and Singapore.
Shanghai has 59 vessels in port and 19 waiting to berth, according to eeSea, while Ningbo and Singapore both have 49 in port and 29 and 12 waiting to berth, respectively.
Due to these challenges, the Danish carrier said some berth, sailing and cut-off details on its Mashariki and Mawingu services this week would be subject to change.
The port rotation of its Mashariki service is Shanghai-Ningbo-Nansha-Singapore-Tanjung Pelepas-Mombasa, while the Mawingu Express runs a Jawaharlal Nehru-Mundra-Port Qasim-Salalah-Mombasa rotation, before returning back to Jawaharlal Nehru via Salalah and Pipavav.
“Our vessels on this service that were expected to arrive Thursday are now berthing later, on Friday, with ETAs further adjusted due to the waiting time, which may delay the discharge of import cargo,” it said.
It explained that it could resort to “unexpected cut and runs” where it was “unable to accommodate all the containers” to meet connections at transhipment ports.
It asked customers: “Please be patient when this happens, and we will work to prioritise shipments on the next available vessel.” OIt would be working round the clock to normalise operations, it assured.
Xeneta’s chief analyst, Peter Sand, explained: “One of the tactics carriers used to mitigate the impact of the longer sailing distance [due to Suez Canal diversions] was increasing use of intra-regional transhipment services in Europe and Asia.
“These good intentions had unintended consequences, causing massive port congestion, with Singapore – arguably the world’s most important transhipment hub – at the epicentre of this ocean supply chain storm.”
He noted that port congestion in Singapore was “heading upwards again”, meaning carriers would continue to look to the neighbouring port of Tanjung Pelepas an “obvious alternative ”, as well as Port Klang.
Tanjung Pelepas is a central hub of the new Gemini partnership’s network.
Mr Sand warned that the two trades, from Shanghai to Singapore and Shanghai to Tanjung Pelepas, “have swapped places three times since 1 July, in terms of which is the more expensive”, and predicted that “the volatile relationship between these trades is likely to continue”.
“If shippers wanted to take advantage of the carrier strategy of increasing use of Tanjung Pelepas, they would have to pay a premium for the privilege, so rates increased,” he explained.
Meanwhile, a haulier strike in Bangladesh meant Chittagong is also struggling with congestion. The eeSea database reported 11 vessels in port and 13 waiting to berth this morning. Colombo, where much Bangladesh-bound cargo is transhipped, has 10 vessels in port and 11 waiting.
The strike ended on Friday, so Chittagong’s congestion will likely begin to ease, but delays still remain as ports work to clear the backlogs.
