Ripples from bridge collapse will give importers a headache

Photo: Baltimore City Fire Department Rescue 1 team

From a container supply chain perspective, the effect from this morning’s incident will probably not be as dramatic as Baltimore’s bridge collapse itself – although it does leave carriers and east coast importers with potential headaches.

Baltimore handles around 1.1m teu a year which, as Verspucci Maritime’s Lars Jensen calculates, is equivalent to 21,000 teu a week that will need to find alternative gateways. And while it may not be the largest in terms of container numbers, the port does have the deepest draught on the US east coast, at 15.2 metres, and some services deploy vessel sizes that can only be accommodated by a handful of other ports in the region – namely, New York, Norfolk and Savannah

“It is likely other larger US east coast ports, such as neighbouring New York/New Jersey and Virginia, can handle additional container imports if Baltimore is inaccessible, which may limit any impact on ocean freight shipping rates,” says Emily Stausbøll, market analyst at Xeneta.

“However, there is only so much port capacity available, and this will leave supply chains vulnerable to any further pressure.

“The question is how quickly ocean freight carriers can put diversions in place, particularly for vessels already en route to Baltimore, or containers at the port waiting to be exported,” she added.

According to the eeSea liner database, New York, Virginia and Savannah had the highest terminal utilisation levels on the North America east coast in 2023, at 75%, 67% and 65% respectively, so there is a certainly a clear danger of regional port congestion developing, which could well propel freight rates upwards.

“Far East to US east coast ocean freight services have already been impacted by drought in the Panama Canal and recent conflict in the Red Sea, which saw rates increase by 150%, so this latest incident will add to those concerns,” said Ms Stausbøll.

For services that deploy smaller ships, alternatives could include Philadelphia, Boston or even Wilmington in North Carolina, the latter two had 2023 utilisation levels of 46% and 26%, respectively.

Even more ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking could see ships diverted to the Canadian Atlantic port of Halifax, recently expanded by PSA as a potential major North America east coast hub – the collapse of the Francis Scott bridge could test that ambition.

Much, of course, will depend on the end destination of import containers

The supply chain that could take a massive hit from this, however, is finished vehicles being imported into the US. Baltimore is the largest car port in the nation, handling around 750,000 finished vehicles a year, and exporting around another 320,000.

Brunswick, in Georgia, handles slightly fewer, and it would be a big ask to expect it to more than double its traffic.

Meanwhile, the global pure car and truck carrying fleet is currently in a situation of severe undercapacity, and the fact that one Wallenius vessel is now stranded in Baltimore behind the bridge will do the trade no favours.