Container ship congestion has reached the North Sea, according to the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), as global trade is increasingly disrupted and delayed, says an article published in The Star.
Jammed the North Sea
“For the first time since the outbreak of the (COVID-19) pandemic, container ships are also jammed in the North Sea off the ports of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium,” IfW Kiel said in its latest Trade Indicator.
Total capacity
Almost 2% of worldwide cargo capacity is currently stranded off the shores of the three countries, unable to be loaded or unloaded, according to the report.
According to the institution, roughly a dozen huge container ships with a total capacity of around 150,000 standard containers are waiting to dock in Germany’s ports of Hamburg or Bremerhaven.
“Even more dramatic” is the scenario off the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Largest economy grew
Despite global supply chain challenges, Germany’s exports increased by 4.4 percent month over month in April, reaching 126.4 billion euros (135.1 billion dollars).
At the same time, according to the Federal Statistical Office, Europe’s largest economy’s imports increased by 3.1 percent to 122.8 billion euros.
“German foreign trade is currently benefiting from order books that are still well filled from the past and are now being worked off,” said Dirk Jandura, president of the German Federation of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA). (1 euro = 1.07 U.S. dollars).
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Source: The Star
