Late again, but who is to blame?

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We are supposed to be in the middle of the peak shipping season on the Asia-Europe and transpacific trades, and although only in hindsight will we be able to judge its strength this year, the emergence of a series of cargo rollovers at Asian ports of loading indicates that some form of peak may be under way. In recent weeks, shippers and forwarders have blamed carriers for artificially manipulating capacity, but this article from Drewry suggests that container lines’ customers also need to take a share of the blame – in particular, forwarders with a propensity for placing ghost bookings, which puts a huge strain on carriers’ systems, while the significant portion of containers delivered late to port further undermines supply chains.