Leading container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk on 18th Jan 2022 warned its customers that it was still struggling to deliver cargo around the world because the easing of port congestion is taking longer than Maersk company had hoped for.
The Covid-19 pandemic has initiated shortages of container vessels and logjams at seaports at a time of soaring consumer spending, which means hundreds of container ships are lying idle outside ports.
“Unfortunately, 2022 has not started off as we had hoped,” A.P.Moller Maersk responded in an advisory published on its web page.
“The pandemic is still going strong and unfortunately, we are seeing new outbreaks impacting our ability to move your cargo,” the shipping firm explained, adding that it expects the constraints to continue “for some time still“.
Maersk expects cargo delays to persist in 2022 due to port congestion issues.
The giant waiting times for box ships to discharge or pick up cargo were on the United States West Coast, where the waiting time at the Port of Long Beach in LA currently is between 38 – 45 days, Maersk stated.
Yet Maersk indicated that there had been some recent easing in Northern Europe where the Port of Antwerp in Belgium was expected to reduce the wait to around two days this week from 10 days the week before.
Source: Reuters, Stine Jacobsen & Emelia Sithole-Matarise
