Container ships are stuck in Germany - the problem can get extremely worse

Created: 08/06/2022, 17:16

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

The congestion in container ships reaches the North Sea for the first time.

© Sina Schuldt/dpa

The congestion of container ships reaches the North Sea for the first time – in front of the ports of Germany, Holland and Belgium.

Deliveries are stuck.

In addition, there is a threat of dockworker strikes.

Hamburg – Traffic jams and delays in container shipping have also reached the North Sea for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic.

Almost two percent of the global freight capacity is currently stuck in front of the ports of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and can neither be loaded nor unloaded, as the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) announced on Tuesday.

Congestion of container ships is shifting to the North Sea - Germany is also affected

Two percent is not a marginal amount - for comparison: In Shanghai, around three percent of the global freight capacity was stuck in traffic during the lockdown.

As a result, exports worth 700 million euros could not be transported from China to Germany, the IfW estimates.

Now the traffic jam has shifted to the North Sea.

According to the IfW, around a dozen large container ships with a total capacity of around 150,000 standard containers are waiting in the German Bight to call at Hamburg or Bremerhaven.

The situation in front of the ports in Rotterdam and Antwerp is more dramatic.

In contrast, the container ship congestion off Los Angeles has completely receded, the IfW said.

Container traffic jam: the dock workers are about to go on strike

Nevertheless, more than eleven percent of all goods shipped worldwide are currently stuck in traffic jams.

In the Red Sea – the most important maritime trade route between Asia and Europe – the gap between expected and actually shipped freight volumes has grown to around 16 percent.

"International trade is again suffering more from the traffic jams and delays in container shipping, which have now also reached the North Sea," said Vincent Stamer, Head of the Kiel Trade Indicator at the IfW.

The situation could get even worse: There is a threat of a strike by dockers in Hamburg, as reported by NDR.

The workers are demanding more money in collective bargaining - but so far no agreement is in sight.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Friday 10 June.