After more than two years of chronic delays in container shipping, shippers are finally seeing continuous improvements in both transit times and in port delays, according to the latest metrics measured by Drewry Shipping Consultants.
In its latest report, the maritime research consultancy firm said since January, port congestion in North America – the most congested region - has halved from 20 times the norm to about 10 times the norm, based on the Automated Information Systems (AIS) measurements analyzed by Drewry in the latest Container Capacity Insight.
Improved transit times cited
Transpacific eastbound "best case" transit times (from the last port in Asia to the first port on the West Coast of North America) have shortened from about 34 days in January to 20 days last week.
"Port congestion in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania remains elevated, by historical standards," Drewry said.
It added that the most impacted region remains North America, where the congestion has improved more on the West Coast than on the East Coast, as shippers worried about the negotiations between the International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) shifted volumes to the East Coast.
"Since the start of this year, New York ship waiting times for a berthing window have averaged 3 days, growing to 5 days in the last four weeks. The adjacent port of Baltimore has been in the green so far, averaging less than one day of waiting time, thus representing a faster alternative for cargo destined for this region," Drewry further said.
The report explained that transit times of the major East-West ocean services, another key factor of the containers' journey, remain much worse than the pre-pandemic benchmark (the year 2019), but the maritime research consultancy firm said it is seeing "an improvement in the latest weeks."
