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International Cooperation Department
Tel.: (+86-21) 65853850-8034
Fax: (+86-21) 65373125
E-mail: ICDept@sisi-smu.org
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Ports |
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| Another container port blockage |
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Date:2024-04-24 Readers:
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Container ports in the western Mediterranean are close to full capacity, according to the Financial Times, which could lead to higher inventory costs and parts shortages for European retailers and manufacturers. The Mediterranean ports of Tangier (Morocco), Algeciras (Spain) and Barcelona are dealing with overflowing yards and ships waiting to berth after the Houthi threat to the Red Sea shipping lanes, local administrators said.
Maersk recently warned customers that yard utilisation at the Port of Barcelona is increasing as the port handles much higher than normal transhipments, while terminals at the Ports of Algeciras and Tangier Mediterranean have also been affected. Alonso Luque, CEO of the TTI Algeciras terminal in the Port of Algeciras, said that the terminal was "quite full" and that serious congestion was avoided by limiting the volume of business.
As shown in the image above, after the Houthi attacks, most of the large container liner companies operating on the Asia-Europe route changed their routes and diverted to the Cape of Good Hope instead of going through the Suez Canal. As a result, liner companies needed to re-route cargo between Asia and Mediterranean ports. Many ships bypassed South Africa and unloaded containers at ports such as Algeciras and Tangier Mediterranean on the western side of the Mediterranean, with feeder vessels carrying the cargo to other terminals in southern Europe.
With key ports struggling to cope with the resulting surge in transhipments, Daniel Richards, director of maritime consultancy MSI, said delays at the ports could force some companies to increase stocks. The ports of Algeciras and Tangier Mediterranean have not released shipping statistics for the year, while container throughput at the Port of Barcelona rose 17 per cent year-on-year in February.
Many terminal operators expect the problem to persist as long as routes continue to be diverted. Nabil Boumezzough, chairman of the management board of Tangier Alliance, the terminal operator at the Mediterranean port of Tangier, said the terminal has been operating at almost full yard capacity so far this year. Vessel tracking services show that ships are often waiting to berth in the offshore anchorages of Algeciras and Tangier Mediterranean, often a sign of growing congestion in the ports, which Alonso Luque said are limited in capacity by their location on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar, forcing shipping lines to travel to less convenient ports further afield such as the ports of Malta and Gioia Tauro.
https://www.cnss.com.cn/html/gkdt/20240424/352981.html
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