Here we are one month after the Suez Canal blockage, and it seems the resulting shipping delays and blanked sailings are finally starting to have a noticeable impact on ocean freight capacity. As major ports and carriers adjust their operations to avoid heightened congestion and rates begin to rise across popular lanes (especially from China/East Asia to Northern Europe), shipping professionals should prepare for the container shortage in Asia to intensify over the next couple of weeks.
In order to help alleviate some of the traffic overwhelming the Ports of Lost Angeles and Long Beach, many cargo owners are opting to send shipments to the Ports of Oakland and Seattle-Tacoma, where dwell times are much shorter and landside congestion is more limited. The ongoing equipment shortage will most likely last into next year as well despite this year’s record-high container production because containers simply aren’t where they need to be following COVID-19’s influence on labor, demand, and carrier scheduling.
Meanwhile, Maersk is set to earn between $9B and $11B by the end of this year, which is twice as high as the carrier’s full-year earnings before interest and taxes in 2020. And to top it all off, the Canadian federal government is already in the process of introducing a bill to end the unlimited strike the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local launched at the Port of Montreal on Monday.
To learn more about the labor dispute or follow up on any of this week’s other top stories, check out the links below:
