The bow wave of Suez Canal disruption hits Europe’s ports

Whilst the freeing of the 400m long 220,000-tonne ‘mega-ship’, the Evergreen, on 29 March was undoubtedly a relief for everyone involved in international trade, the logistical ripple effects of the 7-day disruption continue to be felt, not least in Europe where the majority of in- and out-bound shipping that transits the Suez Canal originates from.

Here in the United Kingdom our largest container port, Felixstowe, cautioned last week that the Suez incident will impact upon the port’s operations, with a spokesperson adding:

“Volumes will be lower than normal for the next week or so, after which, we expect to be very busy as delayed vessels build up.”.

Meanwhile in continental Europe, Rotterdam, which in 2019 handled neatly half a billion tonnes of freight making it Europe’s busiest seaport and third in the world behind Shanghai and Singapore, has launched a temporary real-time website to monitor and manage vessel schedules up until May 9th as delayed shipping from the Suez Canal converges on the port.

In the Mediterranean, the port authorities in Barcelona have reported that fourteen vessels were forced to change their date of call, with the first ship delayed by the grounding of the Ever Green, the MSC Ambra container ship, having arrived in port on 7th April. Delays are forecast to continue prior to the arrival of a further seven shipping services from Asia in the next two weeks.

The global disruption caused by COVID-19 was already a significant factor in rising container prices with the bottleneck at the Suez adding to pessimistic economic forecasts with fears of increased logistical price inputs combined with a surge of pent-up consumer demand arising from the easing of lockdown restrictions feeding into inflationary pressures and price rises in the wider economy.