Ports struggle with congestion as Red Sea crisis and front-loading boost volume

The latest port congestion data reveals that shippers are grappling with extensive dwell times as the Red Sea crisis continues to take its toll.  

Today, Danish carrier Maersk warned customers it had to “implement recovery measures in the US to ensure schedule integrity” on its AMEX service that connects South Africa to the US. 

Delays to this service had been caused by “adverse weather in South Africa and extended waiting time in Freeport”, it said. Freeport is on the US Gulf coast.

“With these contingencies, due to the Jones’ Act rule, we’ve had to tranship cargo out of Freeport, which has created a backlog of containers awaiting on-carriage to final destination,” explained Maersk.  

The Jones Act is a federal statute that requires shipping between US ports to be done by ships constructed in the US, carry an American crew and are US-flagged. 

“These on-carriers also have limited capacity, causing extended dwell time in Freeport. Along with this, there has been an influx of imports into Freeport via other services causing further congestion and backlog, which we are working tirelessly to clear,” added Maersk.  

Meanwhile, supply chain visibility platform Beacon noted the top five congested ports globally as: Durban, with an average 8-day wait time over H124; Ningbo-Zhoushan, with an average 6.1 days; Vancouver, with 4.28 days; Los Angeles with 3.61 days; and Chittagong, with an average wait of 3.41 days.  

“While previous analysis showed that most ports were managing well, the latest data shows major ports are starting to feel the pinch,” said Beacon. 

According to its H1 24 congestion report, the ports with the largest wait time increase from Q1 are Charleston, Zhoushan, Jebel Ali, Manila and Chittagong.