A wave of typhoons and chronic yard congestion is disrupting container flows across Asia, with Typhoon Dolphin — the third and strongest storm to hit China’s eastern seaboard in five weeks — forcing vessels to shelter away from port on August 9. ANL has now omitted Shanghai from its A3N service for six weeks to work through the backlog, while congestion at Colombo remains elevated as Middle East cargo diversions push up yard occupancy and slow inter-terminal transfers.
The knock-on effects are being felt well beyond Asia: Felixstowe’s seven-day average vessel waiting time has climbed to around 1.58 days, prompting some carriers to start omitting the UK port altogether, while Nhava Sheva in India continues to suffer gate turnaround and landside bottlenecks expected to persist through the third quarter. The disruption compounds an already tight equipment and vessel market, with Maersk, CMA CGM and Cosco all weighing a return to Red Sea routings to free up capacity.
Source: Seatrade Maritime News — https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/containers/asian-port-congestion-forcing-container-lines-back-to-the-red-sea
