Bad news, congestion at Jeddah; good news, Maersk service returns to Suez

Something of an all-round Middle East update here: with delays of 4-6 hours continuing to impact Jeddah, shippers may see a reprieve in the news that the Gemini carriers have pushed the AE15 service back through the Suez Canal, suggesting a broader opening may be nearing.

Industry sources confirmed to The Loadstar this morning there had been no change in the situation at Jeddah from Friday’s news that a spike in congestion levels had provoked queues of trucks stretching more than 5km out of the port.

One forwarding source using the Gulf land bridge told The Loadstar: “There is a huge queue of around 5-6 km. The process of both pick-up and empty return is impacted.

“The Fasah gatepass system is also impacted due to congestion, but there is no concession from port operations, meaning that if you miss your slot due to the congestion, there is no allowance,” the forwarding source added.

Carriers have already responded to the chaos, with Hapag-Lloyd suspending bookings after congestion pushed yard density at Jeddah to 90%, provoking a drop-off in the container terminal’s productivity of between 20% and 25%.

The German carrier told customers its “haulage solution via Jeddah is no longer available for cross-border movements to the Upper Gulf until further notice”, noting this also “applies to cargo booked with MH Jeddah and destined for a consignee located outside of Saudi Arabia”.

For cargo booked to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, Hapag has offered to tranship via Khorfakkan and use a landbridge option from there to Sharjah or Jebel Ali, with a third-party road feeder service connecting cargo to final destination.

In the case of goods destined for Dammam or Jubail, the carrier said these would “continue to move through the established Jeddah landbridge solution”, stressing that it would update customers as soon as alternatives and updates became available.

Forwarders The Loadstar spoke with indicated that the situation had remained largely unchanged over the weekend, adding further issues for those that had thought the Gulf landbridge could relieve loss of Hormuz access

But if Jeddah’s congestion has provoked headaches, these to some extent may be relieved with the news that Maersk’s AE15 service is again taking the trans-Suez option.

The first sailing through the besieged canal will be the Majestic Maersk on a Qingdao-Kwangyang-Ningbo-Cape Release-Port Said-Damietta-Colombo-Singapore rotation.

“This joint decision with Hapag-Lloyd comes following thorough assessments of the security situation in the Red Sea area and marks a step towards a gradual return to the trans-Suez corridor,” Maersk said.

“Should the security situation deteriorate, which may necessitate reverting individual sailings or the wider structural change of the service back to the Cape of Good Hope route, we have contingency plans in place.”

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