Northern European Ports Face Prolonged Shipping Backlogs

Ports across Northern Europe are currently experiencing what broker Braemar calls “serious congestion.”

In Antwerp, the situation is especially tight, with Braemar reporting yesterday that the yard is operating at 96% capacity, while reefer plugs are overloaded, running at 112%. Almost half of the vessels arriving are waiting for a berth, and another 52 containerships are en route.

Over in Germany, Bremerhaven is grappling with similar issues, with approximately 30% of ships facing delays. Meanwhile, major ports like Rotterdam, and in the UK, Felixstowe, London Gateway, and Southampton, are also under pressure. These ports are seeing extra traffic as ships are diverted away from continental ports, pushing more cargo into these alternative hubs.

“Experts expect this congestion to last another three to four months, until alliance network adjustments kick in and volumes settle down,” Braemar noted in a container report released yesterday.

“Northern European ports are all challenged by heavily disrupted operations. Waiting time is too long, yard utilisation too high, and the berth line-up is extended,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight rate platform Xeneta, told media.

Sand pointed to several reasons for the pile-ups, including strikes in France and Belgium, maintenance work typically scheduled for off-peak seasons, and a surge of imports from Asia back in January.

“It’s particularly worrying right now, as carriers are lining up an all-time high of containership capacity to carry the frustrated US-bound Chinese-manufactured goods that will arrive 50 to 60 days from now. If the terminals are still severely congested at that time, chaos will reign,” Sand cautioned.

According to Hua Joo Tan, co-founder of consultancy Linerlytica, the congestion at European ports is likely to continue through the summer months.

Data from Linerlytica indicates that shipping lines have already responded by cutting capacity on US routes in reaction to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China. Specifically, 8.6% of the Asia-North America west coast capacity has been withdrawn. Since April, 27 ships totaling 200,000 teu have been pulled from the west coast, with most of this excess capacity redirected to the Asia-Europe and Mediterranean routes.

Simon Sundboell, founder and CEO of liner analytics company eeSea, acknowledged the increasing delays but offered a different take on the congestion issue.

“I believe carriers and vessels are becoming better at not steaming over to a port and sitting idle, at least less so. They’re instead slow steaming and thus not necessarily categorised as congestion or waiting outside a port,” Sundboell explained.