Volatile supply will remain for the rest of the year, warns Hamburg port
Germany’s largest port, Hamburg, has warned that – despite a 2.9 per cent hike in sea cargo registered in the first nine months of 2021 – global supply chain issues are here to stay, at least until the end of the year.
Compared to the same time last year, the port – which is Europe’s third biggest one after Rotterdam and Antwerp – has registered hit record. Containerised general cargo went up 1.5 per cent in the first three quarters of 2021, while Conventional general cargo increased by 5.2 per cent.
According to port authorities, the upward tick is set to continue in this year’s last quarter, even though bottlenecks will remain for sure until the end of the year.
“Delayed ship’s arrivals plus the related delivery postponements also hit the ports. The problems of supply chains meanwhile out of synch will continue to be apparent at the land/sea transport interface,” said Axel Matter, the port’s marketing joint chief executive.
“Since the beginning of the year, large sections of industry have suffered bottlenecks on deliveries. Despite full order books, this can hamper production,” said Ingo Egloff, the port’s other boss.
According to Peter Sand, chief analyst at shipping benchmarking platform Xeneta, the disruption on northern European ports such as Hamburg is smaller.
“When compared to supply chain issued involving ports and hinterland connections in US and UK, the European ports are doing better,” he said.
“Yet, they too are impacted by the changes in consumer demand and impact by government-imposed stimulus as economies recover from the abyss of COVID-19. Goods are in very high demand, while services struggle to get back.
“Main northern European ports like Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg also experience congestion, and ships waiting in line to berth, but as the comeback of inbound goods is smaller – so is the impact on ports and terminal.”