Supply chain under pressure

Workers walked out at Liverpool on Monday for a week with eight days of strikes confirmed for Felixstowe from 27 September.

Adding to this will be China’s Golden Week from 1 October when factories shut for seven days. “These disruptions will delay the peak season cargo coming from China to Europe,” said Christian Roeloffs, cofounder and CEO, Container xChange.

“The cargo ships will be diverted to other ports in Europe and the UK, adding pressure to the congestion in the port of Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Rotterdam, and major port hubs where our proprietary data shows the CAx is already at a very high level,” he added.

The ports of Bremerhaven and Hamburg already have a CAx of 0.87 (meaning more containers are arriving than leaving) ahead of the strikes. Rotterdam is at 0.83, the highest in three years, whilst Le Havre is at 0.89, the highest so far this year.

Another impact will be the delay in returning empty containers from Europe back to China because of the closures and capacity issues.

“Not just for the import of cargo for the coming peak season, I think right now the impact will be majorly on the hindrances of exporting empties out of Europe,” said Christian Roeloffs.

“Overstressed depots full of empty containers will face further inefficiencies because of the strikes as the operations will be halted,” he concluded.