Empty shelves and more expensive products. If something does not happen quickly, that is what we will soon expect, warns Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN). There are by no means enough seagoing vessels arriving in the port of Rotterdam to be able to supply us.
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Many of our products are made in Asia and usually arrive in Rotterdam by container ship. Due to corona, the number of seagoing vessels that sails – and can therefore come to Rotterdam – has been significantly reduced and we are now, months later, reaping the sour benefits.
50,000 containers, no ships to transport them
“Products are standing still in Asia for weeks,” says Ad Schoenmakers. He is director of the Rotterdam forwarding company Ritra Cargo Holland BV and chairman of the seaport logistics steering group at Fenex, the Dutch forwarding and logistics organization. “In the transhipment port in Colombo, Sri Lanka alone, fifty thousand containers are ready to be shipped, but there are no ships to transport them.”
At the start of the corona crisis, exports from Asia decreased drastically. Shipping companies let fewer ships sail on it. The demand for products is now just as high or perhaps higher than for corona, but the shipping companies have still not reduced their capacity.
Schoenmakers: “If I wanted to ship a container from Shanghai to Rotterdam, I used to have a place on a ship within four days. Now it takes at least three weeks. Because of that delay, the consumer will ultimately be faced with an empty shelf.”
Even more delay?
The umbrella organization for European forwarders has now raised the problem with, among others, the European Commission. But according to Fenex, the long waiting times do not seem to be coming to an end for the time being. On the contrary.
The Chinese New Year in early February is expected to cause even more delay. Normally, that period is already extremely busy for shipping. Fenex is therefore urging shipping companies to scale up as soon as possible.
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