This year was the year of the shipping queue for container ships waiting in line for weeks on the Suez Canal or off the coast of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Savannah and Shanghai.
COVID has played a major role for the second consecutive year. It is spurring a recovery in import demand in the United States, a stagnation in port operations in Asia, and an unprecedented rate boom for liner operators and container ship owners.
FreightWaves reports about the 2021 coverage of container shipping by American shippers, one of the most important years in the history of this sector.
Evergiven stuck in Suez
Evergiven was stranded sideways on the Suez Canal on March 23, blocking traffic in both directions for six days. More than 350 vessels were anchored and waiting at peak times.
Evergiven has become a social media meme in the surreal waves of tweets and TikTok videos. The needy shipper faced a few weeks delay in shipping to Europe and the East Coast.
LA/LB logjam
The Evergiven accident turned out to be a side show compared to this year’s main event, US supply chain congestion. Imports reached record highs in 2021 as a whole, And backups range from national ports to their inland transport. The epicenter is Los Angeles / Long Beach, which processes 40% of US imports.
The line of ships waiting at the anchorage off Southern California exceeded 30 in January. And peaked at 40 on February 1st. Previous records of anchoring vessels off Los Angeles / Long Beach during the 2014-2015 labor dispute exceeded by April.
The procession fell to the lowest of only nine container vessels in late June, spurring expectations that congestion would be overcome. As the peak season surged, that hope was quickly shattered. The number of queues started to increase again. The record for February 1 was exceeded by the end of August.
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Source: FreightWaves
