Container shipping company Maersk Group warned its customers on Tuesday (11th) that it still faces challenges in moving goods around the world as it takes longer than previously expected to ease the congestion at ports.
A consultation report released by Maersk stated that, unfortunately, 2022 did not start as expected, the epidemic is still spreading, and new epidemics will limit container transportation capacity, which is expected to continue for some time.
At a time of very high consumer spending, the pandemic has led to shortages of container ships and port congestion, with hundreds of container ships idling outside ports waiting to unload. Maersk said the longest wait times for container ships to unload or pick up goods are at U.S. West Coast ports, with wait times currently between 38 and 45 days at the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles.
However, Maersk noted that the situation in northern Europe has eased recently, with the Belgian port of Antwerp expected to reduce wait times this week to regarding two days from 10 days last week.
In addition, according to the latest data released last week by Alphaliner, a maritime consulting agency, the Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, has surpassed Maersk as the world’s No. 1 container shipping company in terms of transportation capacity.
However, Maersk is still the largest in terms of the transportation volume of its own fleet. Because 65% of MSC’s fleet energy comes from chartered vessels, while Maersk’s ratio is only 42%.
Maersk first entered the container trade market in 1975 and has been the champion of container shipping for decades. As a pioneer, Maersk built container ships that were often record-breaking. There have also been recent investments in ships that can be powered by carbon neutral methanol.