25 Mar European and American Terminals Brace for Whiplash Effect from Latest China COVID Outages
Terminals in Europe and North America have been told to brace for another whiplash effect from delayed shipments out of southern China.
The cumulative TEU waiting time in days based on container vessel capacity (e.g., a vessel with a 10,000-TEU capacity waiting 12 days equals 120,000 TEU waiting days (TWD)), shows the TWD at Hong Kong and Shenzhen, where COVID cases have hampered port productivity dramatically this month, at 1.5 million days as of March 23, versus around 500,000 days two months ago.
These delayed vessels will cause problems at their destination ports in the coming weeks. The increased TWD will have an effect on lead times, inventory.