© Thomas Lukassek
By Mike Wackett
While ocean carriers can be said to be having a “good” pandemic, largely due to their aggressive capacity management programmes to mitigate its impact, most other stakeholders in the supply chain are having to adjust to lower volumes and consequentially reduced earnings.
The North European hub ports are on the front line of the contraction in demand and have reported significant throughput declines for the second quarter.
The port of Hamburg’s half-year results record a massive 16.4% collapse in boxes from its number-one trading partner, China, which contributed to an overall 12.4% slump in containers handled in the first six months, to 4.1m teu.