News / East coast containership logjam builds as vessels steam in

Photo: VesselFinder

As the ILA strike at US east and Gulf coast ports enters its second day, with container terminals across the seaboards now closed, anchorages outside ports have begun to fill up.

However, initial signs indicate that carriers might opt for different strategies for vessels that are unable to dock at ports in the region.

According to the eeSea liner database, the east coast port of Savannah has the biggest queue, with some 10 ships at anchor and another seven en route.

Meanwhile, New York & New Jersey has seven ships waiting at anchor with a further 44 currently steaming towards the east coast’s largest gateway.

Source: eeSea

However, this morning it transpired that carriers could be looking to delay vessels sailing towards the US altogether, if the case of the 4,250 teu Kingston is a harbinger of things to come.

The ONE-operated vessel, deployed on the Japanese carrier’s Mediterranean-North America EMA service, which is operated in cooperation with CMA CGM and Cosco, appears to have postponed its westbound journey after completing loading operations in the Spanish transhipment hub of Algeciras.

“She’s finished up business in Algeciras on 10.01, but is lingering outside of her last load port in Europe instead of heading to New York, where she will doubtless encounter a quickly growing crowded anchorage area,” eeSea head of operations and forecasting Destine Ozuygur told The Loadstar.

“Maybe there’s even a chance that she omits her three US port calls entirely – New York, Norfolk, Savannah – and remains in the Mediterranean.

“Vessels effectively waiting at anchorage for a US west coast WC gateway whilst still in Asia was a well-observed phenomenon during the worst periods of Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion a couple of years back, as well as the longer Vancouver strike last year – for now this is the first ILA strike-affected vessel opting to wait across the water,” she added.

Yesterday, The Loadstar reported that the 5,000 teu MSC Matilde V, deployed on MSC’s standalone Med-US service, is to omit its call at Boston and is currently moored in the western Mediterranean.

However, this morning AIS data revealed that it has resumed its journey – the Boston omission remains – and is scheduled to arrive at New York on 10 October.

In a related development, Hapag-Lloyd has announced several US east coast port call omissions which will be replaced by Mexican and Canadian alternatives.

The 2,500 teu Puerto Limon Express, deployed on the German carrier’s standalone transatlantic CES service will replace its scheduled call at Norfolk with a call at the Canadian port of St Johns, and will then skip a call at the transshipment of Kingston and steam straight to Santa Marta in Colombia.

In the addition, the 6,600 teu Tokyo Bay, operating the east coast South America-North America CES service in cooperation with Maersk, MSC and ONE, will omit calls at Houston and New Orleans and unload those cargo as Altamira in Mexico; while the 4,900 teu NYK Demeter, deployed on THE Alliance’s AL5 transatlantic service, will unload cargo booked for Port Everglades at Halifax.