‘Port congestion is the next major challenge, interoperability across the supply chain can help’

Over half of the EU’s import (by value) enters the continent via maritime routes. In recent years, these operations have encountered great challenges: pandemic disruptions, Red Sea attack and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The next obstacle: congestion. The carriers in the maritime sector are now continuously evaluating their schedules, says Stefan Verberckmoes from Alphaliner at Intermodal Europe 2026 in Rotterdam. They operate in such a volatile environment, that there is no long-term predictability. “Biz as usual does not exist anymore”, the Alphaliner analyst says. Part of the challenge is congestion in ports.

To illustrate, 20% of the world’s fleet was waiting at anchorage to get into a port recently. This happened when typhoons struck China, but port infrastructure in general remains a bottleneck too. As a consequence, shipping lines are investing in terminals and some of them are becoming logistics groups. The recent acquisition of the Matrans in Rotterdam by Boluda Shipping in a case in point.

Verberckmoes remains pessimistic about Europe’s ability to deal with the port congestion challenges. “There is no way European ports will grow their capacity sufficiently”, he says. Excessive procedures and the slow pace of tackling problems are the culprit.

Earlier data sharing about container arrivals across the supply chain could streamline transshipment operations. This needs no infrastructure changes but could grow capacity and mitigate congestion. This thought was expressed by an audience attendee at the Intermodal Europe conference session, but an earlier conference revolved around the same idea.

This story was originally published by RailFreight.com. Read the full story at RailFreight.com →