Port congestion and vessel departure delays are continuing in China’s East Coast ports of Ningbo, Shanghai and Qingdao. The situation is not expected to improve greatly with cargo volumes increasing prior to the China holiday period commencing late September and flowing into October. Vessel delays are still up to 7-10 days in the above ports, our Customer Service staff are keeping those clients affected with latest updated information as soon as we receive same.
While the situation is improving in southern China and Hong Kong ports, there are still vessel delays of around 2-5 days on most services.
South East Asia Congestion:
Indonesia has been experiencing large cargo volumes over the past few months and the lack of available space on vessels is leading to long shipment delays. Shipping Lines are not intending to increase capacity, rather they are more interested in increasing rates. Early booking is essential from all Indonesian ports to ensure space can be allocated, please advise our Customer Service Team if you have upcoming shipments as soon as possible to avoid disappointment and delays.
Ther are also some delays out of Singapore at present, most lines are taking between one and two weeks to make connections to Australian ports.
Panama Canal:
Water levels in the Panama Canal basin are at an all time low due to prevailing drought conditions in the surrounding area. This had led to a substantial reduction in the number of vessels transiting the canal daily. We are not seeing any major delays on services to and from the East Coast USA so hopefully this trend will continue.
Suez Canal:
The Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd Lines have announced that four of their Asia-Europe-Asia services are returning to Suez Canal transits instead of via Cape of Good Hope. This is despite Yemeni rebels occupying one of the islands in the Red Seam mainly targeting Saudi oil tankers from industry reports.
The service changes are effective from late September, and it is hoped that faster transit times will eventually flow through for cargo to and from Australia/New Zealand. There are no announcements from other shipping lines at present.
Straits of Hormuz:
There are still severe blockages for vessels trying to transit the Iran controlled Straits of Hormuz seriously affecting cargo movements to and from United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iran ports due to the on-going conflict in the area. Any easing of the situation would only appear to be possible if the USA and Iran come to a peace deal in the future.