Ports feeling impact of blank sailings

There is a clear drop in container vessel calls compared to the previous two weeks, the third of a series of weekly Port Economic Impact Barometer Reports by the WPSP-IAPH COVID-19 Taskforce shows. Further cancellations have also been made.

Only 41% of the respondents report a rather stable situation (vs.52% and 54% in weeks 15 and 16 respectively). An elevated 42% of the ports experience moderate declines (minus 5% to 25%) in container vessel calls. Already 1 out of every 10 ports face significant decreases (in excess of a 25% drop), compared to less than 3% last week.

“We have begun to see a reduction in vessel calls with blank sailings on the main East-West trades” commented report co-author Professor Theo Notteboom.

However he noted that some ocean carriers have replaced these cancellations by regional feeders with good frequency.

“As a result, the reduced number of long-haul calls has been counterbalanced. There are also some cases in which a slight increase in containerised vessels has been reported with public demand for specific goods on the rise during the lock-down period” he added.

The Task Force has also reported some of the larger container lines requesting quays to be used for cargo storage for those containers where shippers or forwarders have opted for suspension of transit (SOT), predominantly inbound cargo from Asia to Europe and the Americas. Reports of transhipment hubs as well as main line ports having capacity available has alleviated some destination ports in terms of congestion.

Container and general cargo storage area utilisation has now increased, but the lockdown of major industries has led to serious underutilization of terminals and storage areas and warehousing for several other cargoes, said co-author Professor Thanos Pallis.

The WPSP-COVID19 Task Force recently released an updated version of its guidance document for ports.