Container congestion at British ports predicted to continue for 6-9 months

The British Ports Association (BPA) recently commented that it believes the congestion affecting ports around the world and that recently forced several container ships to divert from England to European ports, will last for more than six to nine month.  Caused by the disruption to global traffic arising from the covid-19 pandemic, the situation has lasted “more than a year” and “will continue for another six or nine months,” said BPA Director of External Affairs Mark Simmonds.

Several giant container vessels laden with Christmas goods had to be diverted this week away from Felixstowe, Britain’s largest container port on the east coast, to European ports, due to congestion at its terminals, according to shipping giant Maersk. The vessels have to be docked at other ports such as Rotterdam, or Antwerp, and then the goods are transferred to smaller ships that take them back to Felixstowe.

The English port, which handles 36% of the UK’s maritime cargo, is “one of the 3-4 most affected ports in the world”, according to Maersk.  This congestion is not unique to the UK, says BPA, which reports wait times at the entrance to its terminals as “well below the world average of approximately a week”.  The situation “is much worse in China and the United States,” says Simmonds.

Source: Swissinfo. To read the full original article, access the link:

https://www.swissinfo.ch/por/congestionamento-de-cont%C3%AAineres-nos-portos-brit%C3%A2nicos-vai-durar-meses/47024614

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