Congestion problems in container transport greatly reduced

Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy has revealed that congestion in container shipping has fallen sharply. In October 2022, an average of 10% of containers were jammed, where as in November 2022, this dropped to 8.5%, the lowest percentage in the past 2 years. The highest point was in August 2021, when congestion averaged 14%. For November 2022, though, congestion is still higher than for Corona, when the indicator stood at 7.3% for 2018 and 5.8% for 2019. Congestion has decreased significantly especially in the North Sea region, the ports of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK ranked high due to the strikes in October. However, in November this dropped to 1.2% of total global container capacity which are in congestion. The biggest congestion is currently in the eastern part of China, the cause here being mainly lockdowns. China’s zerocovid policy remains a major risk for global supply chains.