A combination of congestion and new service schedules have led to delays and diversions throughout Northern European ports, with Felixstowe seemingly one of the worst affected.

Congestion in Europe has been an ongoing issue during the past year and Felixstowe has especially suffered through high demand and capacity restrictions. This has  gradually led to slower processing and longer vessel waiting times, which have been averaging around 10-14 days of late.

The delays at the Suffolk port have also resulted in some carriers diverting sailings to other UK ports during the past few weeks.

The situation is not helped by the upcoming changes in the carrier alliances from February 1st. The industry is about to witness the biggest shake up in global ocean freight in a decade, with old agreements expiring and new partnerships being formed.

Rotations are currently being moved and aligned for the new vessel sharing arrangements, which combined with port congestion is wreaking havoc with current schedules, leading to delays, diversions, port omissions and blanked sailings.

For example, scheduling chaos led to two of the world’s largest vessels berthing at the same time at the struggling port of Felixstowe last week, which just added more fuel to the congestion fire.

It could take a few weeks for some of these new services to settle into a regular pattern, and maybe a little longer for new partnerships to maximise their efficiencies.  Therefore, we can probably not expect too much in the way of schedule reliability for at least the first quarter.

As ever, your Westbound team will be monitoring developments closely.

If you have any questions regarding the above, then Westbound are here to help. So, please do not hesitate to contact us.