Worst port congestion in years leads to berth delays

Ships now wait one to two days to berth due to the Red Sea attacks.

Congestion at Singapore’s container port, which is at its worst since the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to persist until year-end due to ship rerouting to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, analysts said.

Some shipping lines have started using alternative ports including Klang and Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia to cut delays, though the bottlenecks caused by the global ocean shipping disruptions have also been affecting other Asian and European ports.

“Our estimation is we'd see it through to the end of the year, possibly through until the Chinese New Year,” Andrew Coldrey, vice president for the Asia-Pacific region at C.H. Robinson, told Singapore Business Review on Aug. 26.

He said shipping lines have had to wait for one to two days to berth in Singapore. The port congestion has also pushed up freight rates.

“By the middle of 2024, the shipping costs increased to a level comparable to the peak during COVID-19,” Yuma Ito, partner and head of Singapore at Arthur D. Little Southeast Asia, said in an interview.