Within the past few weeks, port congestion has worsened on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, especially in Savannah and Houston.

Container availability in the USA is tight in the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas.

Also, limited trucking and equipment availability are among the main challenges across the supply chain.

On the Trans-Pacific East Bound market, spot rates continue to fall, pushing the carriers to apply blank sailings to create an artificial space shortage to keep demand and rates high.

Congestion and delays are still an issue in many inland areas in the USA, such as Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Memphis, and many other locations. All container yards are struggling to clear huge piles of containers, some of which have been stuck for over a month!

On a global level, the conflict between China and Taiwan has not yet affected the cargo movement from/to Taiwan. Still, any escalation might force vessels to reroute their normal paths to the USA, adding more days into transit times and affecting the schedules of vessel traffic in one of the busiest ocean markets in the world.

Potential port strikes continue to loom on the U.S. West Coast between the ILWU and PMA, in the U.K. over wages in Felixstowe and Liverpool, and at German ports. 

Overall the market conditions are still fluid. Despite the improvement of space opening in Asia and equipment becoming available, the congestion, shortage of chassis, and labor are still impacting the normal flow of cargo.