The Christmas ship may have sailed warn delivery experts post Felixstowe bottleneck
The Christmas ship might have already sailed, as Felixstowe’s massive bottleneck is causing container ships loaded with Christmas gifts to be redirected towards EU ports.
According to home delivery company Parcelhero, the next two weeks will be critical for retailers as shipping companies are doing everything they can to allow warehouses to be fully-stocked in time for Christmas.
“Maersk is re-routing large container ships, groaning with goods ready for Christmas, to ports across Europe in the hope they can eventually reach the UK via road and ferry, or on a flotilla of smaller ships,” said Parcelhero’s head of consumer research David Jinks.
“That means Britain’s Christmas is relying on a Dunkirk-style removal of goods from Europe onto smaller ships bound for ports across the UK. That looks to be the only way to bring many of Britain’s Christmas gifts safely home.”
Jinks highlighted how the current situation is a result of a series of causes – from the Covid-19 pandemic and the boom in e-commerce to the more recent driver shortage, which is slowing down significantly cargo operations at UK ports.
“There is little prospect that we will get the 100,00 extra truck drivers that most experts believe we need. The government’s issue of 5,000 extra visas for overseas workers won’t begin to solve the problem [and] that means port delays will only escalate as more container ships loaded with Christmas stock try to berth.”
The truck driver shortage is not the only issue afflicting UK ports, explained McGill’s head of Cargo Kevin Rimmer, as other challenges are impeding the flow of operations.
“Continued container shortages, port delays, congestion, increased freight costs, logistics equipment in the wrong place, and a lack of haulage options has ultimately resulted in delays being widely reported,” he said.
Much like every other port facility in the world – UK ports don’t know when things will improve. “These are the complications,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulaymen, chairman of DP World. “Nobody knows how long it’s going to take [but] I think it’s going to take a long time.”