In an update to customers, Maersk reports that it expects the effects of the Suez blockage to continue into the third quarter. The company is deploying new containers to alleviate the situation.
The world’s largest container line, A.P. Møller-Maersk, expects the effects of the Suez blockage to cause bottlenecks throughout the container industry into the third quarter.
In a customer update, Maersk takes stock of the situation, in which the Ever Given’s close to week-long blockage of the Suez Canal has led to significant delays, only adding to the already significant bottlenecks throughout supply chains in the heated container market.
“The new normal is still being determined, but we expect the situation to remain tight into the third quarter. Ports and infrastructures remain bottlenecks and because of this, ocean and inland delays are likely to continue in and out from high demand locations.”
MAERSK IN A CUSTOMER UPDATE
To alleviate the situation, Maersk is currently deploying new containers into the market. By the end of the second quarter, the company plans to have deployed 260,000 teu, which will be added to the 400,000 teu already added to the fleet between July 2020 and January 2021.
Availability determines short-term bookings
The Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal in late March, causing an almost week-long blockage of the important trade lane for the world’s shipping companies.
At Maersk, the blockage is expected to impact schedules and port calls “well into May”, and the company’s employees are working to mitigate the effects of the blockage, states the update.
“As we get more visibility across the supply chain, we are responsibly accepting short-term bookings across the board. Please note that full acceptance of short-term bookings is being determined by port and equipment availability, as well as the timeliness of getting our services back on schedule.”
Maersk
Earlier in April, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said that he expects the current container market congestion to last until the third quarter.
“We have port congestion in many ports, not only in the US, but also in Europe and to some extent in Asia, where we are simply losing a lot of time, and that means that shipping lines actually currently need significantly more ship capacity to transport the same number of boxes.”
