13 February 2024 (Lloyd's List) - THE conclusion of industrial action at DP World facilities in Australia has not brought an immediate end to delays faced by shippers in the country.

The Container Transport Alliance Australia has warned that customers need to appreciate the “operational realities” of container logistics as ports attempt to recover from cargo delays caused by industrial actions, protests, traffic congestion and weather-related events, and heavy container freight demand.

“While DP World Australia has reached an in-principle agreement with the maritime union on the national clauses in a new Enterprise Agreement resulting in an end to protected industrial actions, the backlog of containers in all DP World terminals persists,” said CTAA director Neil Chambers.

“Vessel-berthing delays of between seven to 14 days continue, which has a knock-on effect to other terminals in all states as vessel schedule reliability continues to struggle.”

Maintenance and IT issues were also leading to disruptions, he added.

Moreover, the threat of pro-Palestine protests targeting ports receiving vessel calls from Zim remained present. Victoria International Container Terminal was closed by protestors blocking landside access for three days last month.

The industry and CTAA have called on the government to ensure ports are recognised as critical infrastructure and protected from the impact of similar actions.

“On top of all of this now, the majority of the container terminals in Australia have an uptick in vessel arrivals, import discharges and export receivals over the coming weeks,” Chambers said.

This was partially due to the pre-Lunar New Year peak in import demand, but also continued strong containerised export demand.

“Importers, exporters and freight forwarders need to appreciate the consequences of the continued turmoil and increased freight demand for container transport operators,” Chambers said.

These would include higher operating costs, including more overtime as additional shifts were added, higher handling costs due to irregular arrival times and increased congestion at container storage facilities resulting in delays.

“There shouldn’t be a false sense that landside container logistics operations have returned to some form of normal,” Chambers said.

“They haven’t; costs are still 15%-20% higher and delays persist.”

Analysts at Linerlytica said delays at Australian ports remain high, at up to 10 days at Brisbane, with shorter delays seen in Melbourne and Sydney.