It seems to be feast or famine at several ports – with blank sailings continuing but ultra large container ships (ULCS) carrying more cargo and putting pressure on land-side operations.
That’s one of the findings of the tenth WPSP-IAPH COVID19 Port Economic Impact Barometer just published, which accumulates results from 90 ports, predominantly located in Europe and the Americas, with some representation from Africa and the Far East.
In the past week, more ports than in any of the past surveys reported a return to ‘business as usual’ - but blank sailings continue to be the order of the day in the container trades. Co-author of the report, Professor Theo Notteboom, comments: “During the last week container ports experienced another wave of cancellations from many carriers.
“The current situation has had serious consequences for some container terminals.
“Calls are less frequent in numbers but ships are filled up with more cargo,” he explains. “Major container ports in both Europe and North America report that the average moves per ULCS per call have significantly increased, with some hubs reaching up to 10 000 TEU moves. This is creating peaks in both ship-to-ship operations and yard activity at the terminals and is starting to impact land-side operations, especially on truck arrivals and departures.”
He says some ports report that it takes days to return to a normal situation at the yard and gates and lost movements of cargo are on the rise. “The workforce in some ports are under increasing pressure as these peaks impact resource on some days, followed by several days off duty with no activity at all.”
