Sea

No box shortage here, says Hamburg

[ March 23, 2020   //   Chris ]

There are no significant bottlenecks in the supply of empty containers in German seaports, despite reports suggesting otherwise, says the port of Hamburg. It says that Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM) conducted a on the weekend of 21/22 March which showed that shipping lines see no appreciable scarcity of equipment, nor were they expecting any shortages to arise.

HMM chief executive Axel Mattern, said: “With the recovery of the Chinese economy, which is already making itself noticeable, shipping, cargo handling, and seaport-hinterland transport in China will be heading back toward normal operations. In view of a slowing economy in Europe, we do not expect to see shortages in the supply of empty containers in Hamburg or the hinterland.”

He did point out that individual shipping lines might run into temporary bottlenecks in supply if short-term imbalances between the flows of import and export container shipping occur. According to Mattern, seaborne foreign trade on the whole can count on the situation easing as soon as shipping between Asia and Europe returns to normal and the demand for export containers declines in connection with the changing economic conditions.

Tags: Port of Hamburg