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Total throughput was 789,776 twenty-foot equivalent units in March, beating the previous monthly record from October 2020 by 34,339 TEUs.
The March total was a 40.8% increase from the same month last year when the coronavirus outbreak largely brought global trade to a halt, underlining the staggering reversal in demand for space on containerships over the past year.
It was also worrying sign that US East Coast ports could face the same port congestion issues that have diverted cargoes from the West Coast. The ports of Long Beach and Oakland, California, also set volume records for March as the Port of Los Angeles reached capacity for container imports from Asia, which have yet to show any sign of slowing.
MSC s Santana service to suspend calls at Port of Los Angeles, reroute to Tacoma
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Trans-Atlantic container rates climb to all-time high amid schedule disruptions
Spot container freight rates for trans-Atlantic head-haul shipments climbed to the highest level on record as shippers scrambled to book limited available space on major shipping lines.
Platts Container Rate 9 UK Continent to East Coast North America – increased by 25% from last week to $3,000/FEU on April 12, the highest level since the assessment was launched in July 2017.
The increase reflected peak season surcharges implemented by shipowners after a six-day halt to Suez Canal transit last month delayed ships sailing from Asia, causing havoc for schedules across the global network.
Many large shipping lines are planning to blank sailings in April and May as a means of schedule recovery since they are already operating at full capacity. Ports in Europe and the US East Coast could be overwhelmed as ships arrive from the Suez Canal simultaneously.
Container markets face high rates and canceled sailings after Suez incident
A new round of cancelled sailings by major container shipping lines could be inevitable after the six-day disruption to Suez Canal transit last month further deteriorated schedule reliability for shipments from Asia to East Coast North America, market sources said.
The Suez Canal Authority said all 422 ships stuck in queue after the grounding of the Ever Given in the southern segment of the canal on March 23 had finally made their transit by April 3.
But the ripple effects of the incident across global networks could be felt in the weeks or months to come as the one-week delay in arrivals to East Coast North America leads to an equivalent delay for the ships returning to Asia, Danish shipping line AP Moller-Maresk said in an advisory to customers on March 31.
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