The weather in Northern Europe and on the Canadian West Coast caused disruption, but that was short term,we are not (yet) in a cataclysmic age where we face permanent weather disruption. Labour issues, in the same regions have also caused problems, but that too is not a permanent situation and is very short term.

The mystery is the situation of empty  containers being shut out of ports, presumably because lines are not   turning them over quickly enough and have used the ports as a temporary storage facility.

Do they not need them in Asia? Trade growth is being blamed as the future of port congestion, but we have seen the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach coping with double digit growth  since their disastrous 2004 congestion, and no congestion for the last two plus years.

Are we confusing productivity and  misuse of space as the reason for congestion rather than space capacity? Are the terminal operators geared up to handle 10,000 teu-11,000 teu ships discharging plus or minus 4,000 boxes in a single port? This is central to the issue.

How to deal with bursts of high volume followed by shipper and operator reluctance to make the move from terminal to gate in a speedy way. This is where we should be focusing our attention, on dealing with the move from the land side to the quay or vice versa in an efficient manner.Much needs to be done here. This is a management issue; just benchmark with Singapore.

BEN HACKETT