427 container ships in global ports are waiting for unloading!

The latest data from the analysis company Vessels Value shows that there are currently 427 container ships waiting in line for berths outside the world's ports, with a total capacity of 2914,445 teu, an increase of 14% compared with the 376 at the beginning of September, and the congestion situation continues to deteriorate.



The company said that more and more ships are heading to the port, and the congestion shows no signs of improvement. Both US and Asian ports have been hit.



97 ships in the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles are waiting to enter the port, and the total length of containers connected end to end can reach 2,200 kilometers

"Now, the congestion in the port is very serious. When the anchorage is saturated, the ships have to drift in the nearby Santa Monica Bay or beyond. The port call time increases as the waiting time of the ships increases. Due to the need to work hard to clean up the accumulation. The number of containers and the shortened turnaround time, the port has extended its operating time." said Charlotte Cook, chief trade analyst at Vessers Value.

According to a CCTV financial report, since this week, the US's busiest Southern California Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have intensified congestion. The latest data from the Southern California Maritime Exchange shows that as of this Monday, containers waiting to enter the port outside the above two ports There are as many as 97 cargo ships, unprecedented in history.



According to calculations, if all the containers loaded on the waiting ship are connected end to end, the total length can reach about 2,200 kilometers, which is equivalent to half of the distance from the east coast to the west coast of the United States.



Affected by factors such as the imbalance between supply and demand in the global shipping industry and the weak port operation capacity, there are currently 97 cargo ships in the two ports in Southern California, which is twice the amount in the same period in August. The average arrival time has been extended from 6.2 days in mid-August. So far, 8.7 days. Vessels Value said the ship with the longest waiting time has been waiting for 22 days.
▎Asian ports are also hit



At the same time, Asian supply chain bottlenecks are getting worse. A total of 74 ships lined up for berths outside Ningbo Zhoushan Port, equivalent to 306,538 teu capacity being idle, an increase of 48% in just one week.



[Ningbo Port has experienced terminal closures and severe weather in recent months, which has exacerbated port congestion. There is a serious shortage of export containers, and it takes much longer than normal to return empty containers and fill them up." Cook Express.



In order to get rid of the bottleneck, some import ports have cancelled priority loading of empty containers, which may cause problems in the next few months. Due to the shortage of containers, shipments from Asia will be cancelled.
Cook predicts that the number of ships waiting at the port will continue to increase, thereby exacerbating the lack of available ship capacity. At present, the freight market is entering the busiest period of the year, until Black Friday and Christmas.



Cook said: "In addition to the currently waiting ships, we also see a large number of ships still on their way to these locations, which indicates that it will take some time to clear the congestion and the interruption may continue until 2022."



Vessels Value believes that this severe congestion is a side effect of the recovery of the world economy after the new crown epidemic, and is the result of a combination of factors such as increased demand, shortage of available labor, and shortage of capacity.
Source:Sofreight.com