The congestion of container ships in the North Sea continued to grow in June. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) announced on Wednesday that more than two percent of global freight capacity was idle there and could neither be loaded nor unloaded. Queues are also growing in front of Chinese ports. More than four percent of global freight capacity is currently tied up off Shanghai and the neighboring province of Zhejiang. “There is currently no end in sight to the congestion in container shipping,” said Vincent Stamer, who heads the IfW’s Kiel Trade Indicator. This records the worldwide trade flows in shipping.
In North America, on the other hand, the situation has eased. The high demand for consumer goods in the USA caused by the pandemic has subsided, and the traffic jam in front of the port of Los Angeles has cleared. This relieves the transport routes. Freight costs from Asia to the west coast of North America have fallen by almost half since the beginning of this year. Freight rates on the way from Asia to Northern Europe, on the other hand, are still six times as high as two years ago, Stamer reported.
In the Russian Baltic Sea port of St. Petersburg, where goods from Europe arrive, the volume of freight has collapsed, according to the IfW. In contrast, the Russian ports, which are involved in Asian trade, are recovering somewhat. This shows an attempt to replace lost trade with Europe in Asia because of the war in Ukraine.
Basically, according to Stamer, world trade in June showed a slightly positive trend. “But massive ship jams, high transport costs and the resulting delivery bottlenecks are hampering the exchange of goods, especially with a view to Europe.”(dpa)