Congestion at many of the world’s major ports has led operators to seek out smaller ports in order to avoid delays, reports Bloomberg.
The number of container ships off the combined anchorage area of Shanghai-Ningbo was 248 last Friday November 5th, down 31 from the April-to-October median. However, the smaller port to the north, the regional port of Tianjin, had 14 waiting container ships, 11 more than usual.
At the southern California ports of POLA and Long Beach, both abutting San Pedro Bay, at least 79 vessels were waiting to offload .
In Asia’s second-largest combined anchorage spot, Hong Kong-Shenzhen, the ship count was 221 – 30 more than the median, while smaller southern neighbour Qinzhou had up to 10 container ships waiting.\
Singapore, although down from a high of 53 waiting ships earlier in the week, still had 17 more vessels waiting than usual.
In Malaysia, Tanjung Pelepas net congestion jumped 30.5 points to 57.1%, while Port Klang’s rose 7.5 points to 37.1%.
In the US the number of ships off Savannah, Georgia, the nation’s fourth-largest port, fell to its lowest since October 4th, but neighbouring anchorages near Charleston, South Carolina, and Florida’s Fort Lauderdale saw their highest counts since Bloomberg starting tracking the data. Charleston had 11 container ships waiting and Fort Lauderdale had 10.
At the UAE combined hub of Jebel Ali and Dubai there were 55 container ships waiting, equal to the highest point reached this year.
The Greek port of Piraeus had 29 ships counted in its anchorage, up one on the previous week and well-above the long-term average.