Overall Port Congestion
Kuehne+Nagel's Disruption Indicator reflects the daily fluctuation in port congestion at hot spot ports worldwide. The indicator measures disruption in TEU waiting days by combining data on the number of vessels waiting at a port, their TEU capacities, and the number of waiting days. Under normal circumstances, the TEU waiting days would be around one million.
Over the course of the week, the Disruption Indicator fluctuated around the 2 million mark, mainly due to congestion at the US East Coast ports of Charleston, Savannah, and Norfolk. The total TEU waiting time is 1,954,273 TEU waiting days at all Hot Spot ports and 381,491 TEU waiting days at North American ports.
Asian ports remain stable, with a 7-day vessel waiting time averaging around 2 days as fog and wind interrupt port operations at Chinese and South Korean ports.
Not much movement is seen in the waiting times for European ports this week; however, this could change as the summer peak season nears and labour is potentially reduced over the summer holidays. No further strike action has been announced in France. Port operations are reportedly normal, with healthy yard occupancy and minimal vessel waiting times.
Operational News
Africa
South Africa
Durban: Port operator Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) celebrated an improvement in truck turnaround times at Durban Container Terminal. According to TPT, truck turnaround averaged 59 minutes by the end of the 2022/23 financial year, a 15% improvement. Furthermore, truck staging had decreased by 24%, averaging 76 minutes, and stack occupancy levels had been reduced by 18%, averaging 54%.
TPT credits the improvement to the change in the import storage rule made several months ago, which encouraged quicker pick-up of import containers. Port users have argued that while improvements were seen a few weeks ago, turnaround times are now averaging 3.5 to 5 hours due to equipment breakdowns and a shortage of skilled labour. The 7-day average vessel waiting time is around 2 days.
Asia
Bangladesh
Chittagong: Cyclone Mocha was expected to make landfall on Sunday, 14 May, in Bangladesh. The port closed on Sunday, and vessels were moved to outer anchorage. Operations restarted on the morning of 15 May after the cyclone hit Myanmar, causing less damage than anticipated. Due to the off-peak season, no berthing congestion is expected.
Europe
Denmark
Truckers protested against the introduction of a kilometer-based road tax on 15 May. Several pop-up roadblocks affected many motorway exits, including the Aarhus-Herning road and the border with Germany. On 16 May, truckers gathered outside Parliament in Christiansborg to appeal the road tax. Heavy truck presence was also reported on certain highways where truckers formed convoys to slow down traffic deliberately.
Germany
A 50-hour rail strike planned for this week was called off on Saturday, 13 May, after the EVG union and the Deutsche Bahn reached an agreement. Despite the cancellation, delays for regional and long-distance trains are still expected.
Italy
Genoa: Planned maintenance of the railway line connecting the port of Genoa with the Milan area on 20 and 21 May. Intermodal connections on these days and days preceding and following the maintenance could be affected.
Turkey
Iskenderun: Maersk reports positive results of trial calls to the port in April. The carrier will continue to make weekly calls and monitor port performance. The 7-day average vessel waiting time is around 2 days, about the same as last week.
Mersin: Carriers report increased congestion and vessel waiting times at the port, causing delays. The 7-day average vessel waiting time is around 4 days, an improvement from about 4.5 days last week.
United Kingdom
Rail union ASLEF announced strike dates for May and June last week. The most recent strike took place on 12 May. The next strike actions are planned for 31 May and 3 June. Nationwide disruptions are expected.
Other Port News
Africa
Mozambique
Maputo: The Port of Maputo has opened two new cold storage facilities to serve the 2023 South African citrus export season. Maputo handled citrus exports last year to the Middle East, India and the Far East, expecting 3-4 times the volume this year.
The Matola Cargo Terminal has a 1500-pallet capacity and is expected to increase to a 4500-pallet capacity by next year. The second facility is located near Zimpeto and has a 1344-pallet capacity and an ambient warehouse that can pack around 50 reefers per week. DP World Maputo is expanding the port by adding 400m deep-water quayside with new shore-to-shore quay cranes. This will be completed by the end of 2025. The port has also recently added 440 reefer plugs at the terminals and increased the number of carrier services it hosts.
South Africa
Cape Town: Transnet announced its long-term development plans for the Port of Cape Town at a roadshow last week. Over the period 2022-2032, the port will focus on three areas of development:
- The expansion and development of the Culemborg back-of-port logistics park, including warehousing, cold storage and facilities for stuffing and de-stuffing containers
- The development of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) terminal
- The execution of phase 2b of the Cape Town Container Terminal expansion – increasing its landside, rail and truck staging capacity, enhancing the terminal capacity from 1 million to 1.4 million TEU.
Asia
India
Indian ports reported a drop in throughput for April compared to the previous month. The port of Mundra saw a 13% decrease in April, versus March, despite cargo diversions from Nhava Sheva (JNPT) due to a berth closure at APM Terminals Mumbai. Throughput at the northwestern port was 579,358 TEU last month, compared with 664,890 TEU in March. At the country's biggest port Nhava Sheva(JNPT), volumes declined by 5% last month, handling 521,890 TEU, compared to 550,318 TEU in March, reports Maritime Gateway. April throughput at Chennai remained stable at 123,633 TEU. Cochin Port, which houses India's first fully-fledged transhipment facility (Vallarpadam Terminal), handled 55,041 TEU in April, down from 61,327 TEU in March.
Taiwan
Kaohsiung: Evergreen Marine Corporation has begun operating Taiwan's first fully automated container terminal. The new terminal can berth four 24,000 TEU vessels simultaneously. It is also the first terminal in the country to use controlled 25-container outreach ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, fully automated driverless transtainers, and smart gate controls in both quay and inland operations areas.
Europe
Germany
Hamburg: The German government approved the 24.9% minority share investment of China's COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL) in Hamburg's Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT). The acquisition will make CTT the preferred terminal for COSCO's Asia and Europe cargo. The transaction between the port and CSPL is soon to be finalised.
North America
USA
Long Beach: The port has recorded further volume loss in April. The east coast port handled 656,049 TEU last month, down 20.1% from April 2022. Imports declined by 21.8% to 313,444 TEU, while exports increased slightly by 0.6% to 122,663 TEU. Empty containers also decreased by 26.2% to 219,943 TEU. The port says the slowdown in consumer spending and cargo shifts from west to east coast ports are the reasons for the results. No further development has been reported on the ILWU contract negotiations.
Savannah: The port plans to add 3 million TEU in annual capacity by 2026, bringing its total capacity to 9 million TEU. The expansion entails two projects. The first consists of adding 1.5 million TEU in capacity to the Garden City terminal by the end of 2023. The second entails the expansion of the Ocean Terminal to handle two 14,000 TEU ships simultaneously. This is expected to start in January 2025. The authority said it wants to extend the port further after 2025 to allow it to handle two 16,000-TEU ships at the same time.
South America
Brazil
APM Terminals pledged an investment of €962 million (R$ 5.2 billion) in Brazilian operations by 2026. This includes a €296 million (R$ 1.6 billion) investment in the Phase One development of a new terminal in Suape, located in Estaleiro Atlântico Sul. Other parts of the investment will increase capacity at inland depots fivefold and accelerate the transition to low and zero-emission container handling. APM Terminals announced it would prioritise renovation of its terminal in the Port of Santos, Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP), which it operates with Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), a subsidiary of the MSC group.
Ecuador
Puerto Bolívar: The International Development Finance Corporation approved a $150 million loan for port expansion to port operator Yilport. The investment is expected to expand the port's export volumes to more than 500,000 containers per year and enhance its anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling capabilities.
