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Nearly all container shipping trades hit by congestion

Photo: Marcus Hand Containership at sunset in Singapore
Virtually all container trades are being impacted by congestion with the exception of those connecting South America with Europe and North America.

While congestion on the key transpacific and Asia – Europe trades has grabbed the headlines analysts Sea-Intelligence say it impacts a far wider range of trades.

Of the 34 trade lanes covered in its Global Liner Performance Report SeaIntel most trades showed a major increase in delays in September this year compared to a baseline of 2016 – 2019.

“Most trades show very large increases in delays, indicating that the congestion problems leading to delays are indeed prevalent globally and not isolated to just a few large key trades,” said Alan Murphy, CEO of SeaIntel.

The average delay across the 34 trades covered peaked at 3.93 days in August this year, however, for many trades delays are significantly higher.

In terms of the relatively less impacted trade lanes, these are mostly connected to South America, from both Europe and North America.