A recent analysis conducted by London-based maritime research consultancy Drewry found that container carriers have been making multiple changes to their port call patterns. The consultancy says that the drop in demand for cargo transportation by sea is pushing liners to “revert to more normalised call patterns.”

Drewry says the adjustments made also affect the sizes of vessels deployed across North American and European markets. This, in turn, has positively affected vessel turnaround times. Pre-berth waiting time has witnessed a steep fall, while faster handling operations reduced the time a vessel needs to spend on the berth.

Vessels waiting at West Coast vs. North Coast

Average call sizes in the US West Coast remained above 2019 levels, says Drewry, but dropped below this level for New York and Norfolk. The difference in the number of vessels waiting on the West Coast vs. North Coast is also visible in seaexplorer analytics data.

The number of anchored vessels at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fluctuated between zero and one between 15 April and 2 May, as seen in the figure below.

However, the case is different when looking at New York Port. The average number of anchored vessels reached five throughout the same period, with the maximum being nine vessels on 15 and 21 April. Correspondingly, the Port of Savannah had nearly seven anchored vessels on average in the same timeframe.

Throughput North America vs. North Europe

Drewry further reported that throughout in North American ports declined by 10% in March month-on-month and 28% year-on-year. A similar drop was registered in some of the key ports in North Europe, where container throughput fell 8% in March month-on-month, says Drewry.