As a strategy to tackle the Red Sea crisis shipping lines had resorted to bunching of ships which has resulted in severe congestion at key ports of Singapore and Shanghai/Ningbo. As per the data published by Linerlytica, ships have been waiting for almost two weeks for their opportunity to berth at these ports, where in a general scenario they used to get berthing on arrival and the waiting time was at the max one or two days.
It has been reported that at the port of Singapore about 51 ships are being serviced while 40 more are waiting at the anchorage. Similarly, at Shanghai/Ningbo port, 92 ships are loading/unloading cargo at the port, while 81 are waiting for their turn. Cumulatively, about 8 lakh TEUs of containers are being moved onboard the ships at the two ports while another 6.50 lakh boxes are stuck at the anchorage with the vessels waiting for their turn.
Container xChange has reported that the escalation in demand and supply situation has caused the average prices for 20-ft dry containers to rise from $950 in September 2023 to over $1,200 now.
