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Sea-Intelligence published its latest figures on port congestion on 16 August, showing that persistent congestion continues to weigh on global container shipping. According to the analyst, there has been no improvement in vessel delays, with an estimated 1.7 million TEU of global vessel capacity currently kept off the market.

Global container vessel schedule reliability remains broadly stable at around 60-65%, showing little sign of improvement. Late vessels are now arriving on average 5-5.5 days behind schedule, compared with a pre-pandemic norm of around three to four days. In June, delays absorbed around 5% of global capacity, compared with a relatively stable pre-pandemic baseline of 2.2%.

Conditions are considerably worse on the transatlantic trade. Persistent congestion in North European ports has kept transatlantic schedule reliability below 50% for most of the year, while July on-time performance from North Europe to the US East Coast fell to just 28%. The delays are limiting effective vessel capacity and leading carriers to skip port calls or implement blank sailings.

Strong European import volumes from Asia are adding to the pressure, with yard utilisation in Rotterdam and Antwerp regularly exceeding the critical 90% level. This is delaying the loading of US-bound containers and contributing to localised equipment shortages.

Sea-Intelligence notes that the combination of more frequent vessel delays and longer delay durations means that a larger share of global capacity is effectively unavailable. This continues to constrain the capacity available to shippers and freight forwarders despite the nominal growth of the global container fleet.

The operational pressure comes against a mixed freight rate picture. Drewry reported on 13 August that its World Container Index increased slightly by 1% to $4,339 per 40ft container. On the Asia–Europe trade, rates continued to ease, with Shanghai–Rotterdam falling by 5% to $4,425 and Shanghai–Genoa by 8% to $5,080 per 40ft container. The Shanghai–Rotterdam rate nevertheless remained around 39% above its level a year earlier.

By contrast, Transpacific rates increased sharply, with Shanghai–New York up 10% to $8,706 and Shanghai–Los Angeles up 6% to $6,244 per 40ft container. Drewry also pointed to continued capacity management by carriers: ten Transpacific sailings had been cancelled in each of the previous two weeks, with another seven cancellations planned for the following week. On Asia–Europe, three blank sailings were announced for the following week.

Drewry expects freight rates to remain relatively stable in the short term. However, carrier capacity management and continuing operational disruption mean that the easing of Asia–Europe spot rates has yet to translate into a corresponding improvement in supply chain reliability.