Empty container boxes, which are critical for Asia’s exporters, are becoming trapped in Rotterdam as a growing backlog of undeliverable products at Europe’s export centre forces ocean carriers to prioritise shipments of filled boxes.
The Dutch port has been inundated with both full and empty containers arriving from other European marine operations. After Shanghai authorities sealed down the city in March, carriers have reduced the number of vessel crossings from the continent to China.
“Terminals are only allowing shipping carriers a limited capacity for empty boxes and are focusing on transporting filled containers,” according to Kuehne + Nagel International AG. “Containers are building up at the terminals, and more and more containers, particularly those bound for Asia, are unable to be returned on departures.”
Although authorities in Shanghai lifted restrictions this month, shortages of vessels and delays at European ports are forcing export goods to compete with empty boxes for space on ships headed to China, threatening to send a further wave of disruption to Asia, logistics firms said.
Factories in China will require empty boxes to make up for lost orders during the past few months, and will be hampered by the shortage of ships and equipment, they said. The volume of trucked container goods into Shanghai from nearby provinces in China has recovered to 71% of levels seen on March 12, according to data from FourKites. Meanwhile, trucking shortages and worker protests in the US and Europe are holding up deliveries.
Supply chains have been struggling to recover from China’s Covid Zero policy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has led to companies shunning the over-land railway that could have otherwise relieved pressure on logjammed ports. High congestion levels at Rotterdam prompted shipping line AP Moller-Maersk A/S to inform customers last week it would be relocating unclaimed boxes of goods out of the port. The situation has meant longer waiting times for vessels at all major North European ports, Kuehne + Nagel said. About 60% of the vessels traveling from Europe to Asia in April and May of this year were delayed, and there were 13 ships waiting for a berth in Rotterdam as of June 17.
