“The shakeup ends Maersk’s 25-year reign as the undisputed champion of cargo shipping.”

“Covid-zero policies have led to snarls in other links of China’s supply chain. Quarantine requirements for river pilots on the Yangtze, a major artery for the movement of goods, including exports, has led to a shortage of pilots, backing up traffic into seaports, including Ningbo.”

“Exclusive data from Danish liner consultancy eeSea today shows the worst areas where ships are backing up as well as showing improvements at previous sore points such as Savannah on the US east coast.”

“Global supply-chain woes are beginning to recede, but shipping, manufacturing and retail executives say that they don’t expect a return to more-normal operations until next year…”

“The absolute worst in terms of global port congestion has passed multiple data points confirm, and the pressure is now on inland links to move the goods in time to make into Santa’s sack for December 25.”

“The big change on the congestion front is in China…On Monday, eeSea data showed 81 container ships at anchor off the two ports, a decline of 47% in just two-and-a-half weeks.”

“Due to vessel congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, importation into Nigerian seaports has receded as foreign shipping companies are abandoning Asian-African routes for commercially viable India-United States and China-United States routes.”

‘Coca-Cola’s unorthodox supply chain move underscores the extreme frustration many retailers feel with shipping lines…The average Asia-US shipment now arrives 10 days late, according to Simon Sundboell, CEO of the shipping analytics firm eeSea. “If you’re a cargo owner, you can’t understand how you have to pay six times what you usually do and…it’s so volatile that your vessel might be three days late or it might be 20 days late,” he said. “You just can’t count on anything anymore.” ‘

“Klaus Müller-Blech is sending Christmas to Gettysburg, Pa., in a 1,000-foot long container ship. So far it’s running three months late thanks to global transportation congestion…The slow and expensive global journeys of Mr. Müller-Blech’s baubles, trees and ornaments show how every aspect of international transportation is under stress ahead of the busy Christmas season.”

“There are over 60 container ships full of import cargo stuck offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but there are more than double that — 154 as of Friday — waiting to load export cargo off Shanghai and Ningbo in China, according to eeSea, a company that analyzes carrier schedules.”

“Full year growth figures for the volume of containers shipped around the world are showing considerable divergence among analysts.”

“…DP World announced today it would begin construction of a fourth berth at London Gateway next month. The Dubai-headquartered port operator said this morning it would invest £300m ($415m) in the new facility, building on the £2bn-plus it has already ploughed into the UK’s newest deepsea port.”

“…the injection of supply is being countered by congested ports delaying vessels and inland logistics bottlenecks slowing equipment turnaround…Data from container shipping visibility provider eeSea show Asia-North Europe capacity growth in August 2021 increasing 29 percent versus the capacity deployed in July and up 11 percent versus June. August capacity was up 34 percent year over year.”

“CMA CGM and the Abu Dhabi Ports Group (ADPG) today signed a 35-year concession to jointly develop a new container terminal at Khalifa Port.”

“Looking at the big picture, new analysis from Copenhagen-based Sea-Intelligence shows that the 11 global carriers that report their results recorded a combined EBIT of $24.5bn in the second quarter. Putting this in perspective, the 11 carriers were only able to muster a total combined EBIT of $6.9bn for the entire period from 2012 to 2020.”

“With a record vessel backup of 47 container ships waiting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach during the Aug. 28 and 29 weekend, the core problem facing container logistics — the slowdown in the circulation of ships, containers, and chassis that is draining capacity and driving spot rates to record levels — is clearly worsening.”

“Container lines this month began upping their deployment of trans-Pacific capacity, with approximately 22 percent more capacity available to the West Coast through December than was available in March through July, according to eeSea, a platform that maps carrier schedules. Carriers are also adding approximately 14.4 percent more capacity to the East Coast through year-end, eeSea said.”

“Splash has identified 41 containerships at or near to the San Pedro anchorage awaiting a berth today in a peak season like none other in the 65-year history of containerisation…The Los Angeles port data for August showed that 90% of vessels headed straight to anchor, joining a queue averaging 7.8 days of anchor time.”

“Discussing the fast changing global congestion scene, eeSea founder Simon Sundboell commented: ‘The picture of course changes daily, and my impressions from speaking to our port customers is exactly that; it’s really a moving target right now – with a multitude of variables, not just Covid – and incredibly hard to plan for.’ “

“Asia-North Europe loops with a pro-forma round-trip transit time of around 75 days are now taking 100 or more, with carriers obliged to juggle schedules at the last minute.”