Maersk u-turn as port congestion increases across Northern Europe
Just a few months after electing to swap its UK hub from Felixstowe to London ...
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By Mike Wackett
Port congestion blighting US gateways is worsening as the nation prepares to celebrate the traditional peak Thanksgiving holiday consumer shop next week, with frustrated shippers pointing the finger of blame squarely at container lines.
More than two-thirds of all US trade moves through its west coast ports, where in addition to the severe bottlenecks there is considerable unease at the seeming inability of the terminal operator and shipping line representatives the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ...
Comment on this article
Jerry McCormick
November 20, 2014 at 2:59 pmThe reason for the congestion has nothing to do with the carriers but port perfomance and un-efficient hinterland operations. The entire logistics to/from the quay-side are subject of tremendous concern and as long as there is no solution to this which will stand everybody will suffer. So stop blaming the messenger ! Ocean carriers do already more than they should. Just get the job done ashore !
Mike Wackett
November 24, 2014 at 2:49 pmPort performance does need to be stepped up Jerry to cope with increased throughput and bigger ships – a subject debated in detail at last week’s JOC conference in London.
However the view of the conference was that carriers could assist greatly by meeting berthing windows.