There is a capacity crunch in liner shipping and ship owners are not handling it particularly well, according to the European Shippers’ Council (ESC) following consultation with its members.
Earlier this year, the ESC complained that many shippers who regularly export goods to Asia have been facing a large drop of available slots for containers on almost every shipping line.
“ESC also draws the attention of the regulation authorities to the current market structure where three major alliances control close to 90% of the capacity on the major trades,” the Council said.
Following an emergency meeting requested by representatives of national shippers’ councils as well as by individual export companies, the ESC has highlighted that goods to be exported have been waiting for up to eight weeks to be loaded on ships.
Even when they are loaded, some goods from a shipment are frequently being left in the port.
Following the meeting, the ESC board of directors decided to set up a temporary observer group composed of representatives of European exporters to closely monitor the situation.
They will analyse the changes in capacity, the time of delays and the fluctuation of rates.
The ESC has said that it will meet the European Commission in a few weeks in order to present an informed view on the present crisis and to discuss strategies to prevent this from happening again in future.
