In recent days, there have been constant “incidents” at European ports, with congestion in the past and strikes in the latter. However, last weekend’s massive road traffic jam once again caused trucking delays.
Port of Dover announces ‘major incident’
A few days ago, the worst traffic jam in history occurred at the Dover and Folkestone borders and the Channel Tunnel connecting Britain and France. The British and French governments blamed each other for the traffic jam.
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the British port of Dover, declared the situation a “major incident” due to long queues and blamed France for the delays. The Port of Dover said that while attention was mainly focused on holidaymakers, the impact on cargo throughput was also significant.
It is reported that the Port of Dover is an important gateway from the United Kingdom to the European continent. The queue waiting for the ferry to Calais, France, at the Port of Dover that day had reached 4 to 5 hours.
According to reports, it coincided with the holidays for many schools in the UK, which is usually one of the busiest holiday periods.
Thousands of British families drove to the Port of Dover in the UK that day, hoping to cross the English Channel and land in Europe to start their summer vacation. However, many people did not expect that “joining the European Union” would be so difficult.
A British family said they had queued for three hours to get through a tunnel, with just a mile left in the queue but expected to wait another four hours for their turn, with delays passing through border controls. very long.
A UK transport and logistics company said some truck drivers were waiting “more than 18 hours” to cross the Channel to France.
To make matters worse, there was another lengthy traffic jam outside the Port of Dover on Saturday local time. Local officials said it may be more serious than the last traffic jam. The Port of Dover’s chief executive said it could face delays of up to six hours this time.
One freight company said it had been a “nightmare day”, advising those who had no other options yet to stick with the port of Dover, despite trucks facing delays of 5.5 hours entering the EU and three hours entering the UK.
In response, the British Foreign Secretary blamed the French authorities for the congestion and blamed the problem on insufficient personnel in the French border force.
France says this is a sequelae of Brexit. Since the UK is no longer a member of the EU, more checks are required.
It is reported that the Port of Dover in the UK and the Port of Calais in France implement “parallel” border controls.
The biggest traffic jam in history occurred on the British-French border here, and on the other side, the Port of Rotterdam released a new message about Russian container transportation.
Port of Rotterdam presses “pause button”
Recently, the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands announced that container transportation to and from Russia has been stopped. It also noted that ongoing bottlenecks in global container logistics have led to the diversion of cargo from large to smaller container ports.
It is reported that in recent months, in anticipation of EU sanctions on coal and oil, imports of Russian coal, crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas have decreased, and companies will increasingly import from other countries.
In the first half of this year, the total cargo throughput of the Port of Rotterdam was 233.5 million tons, 0.8% higher than the same period in 2021. Container cargo weight fell by 8.9% and throughput fell by 4.4% (in TEU). The difference between the two is attributed to the increase in the number of empty containers.
Logistics companies have been struggling with container shipping plans for months as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and coronavirus lockdowns have thrown global shipping markets into disarray.
Congestion worsened when European countries’ imports of coal and liquefied natural gas surged, a sign of the inability of port infrastructure to handle the surge in traffic.
Last month, the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, was in emergency. As the backlog of undelivered goods at the Port of Rotterdam becomes increasingly serious, a large number of empty containers cannot be put into use in time.
Forcing shipping lines to prioritize shipping fully loaded containers, empty containers vital to Asian exporters are being stranded in Europe’s largest export hub.
The ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine was one of the main reasons for the 4.4% drop in container volumes at the Port of Rotterdam in the first half of this year. In the first six months of 2022, 7.27 million TEUs were transported through major European ports.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority said another factor contributing to the decline in container volumes was the ongoing disruption to container logistics.
Two years ago, the pandemic led to lockdowns and changes in consumption patterns. Container ships are no longer able to adhere to their sailing schedules, causing disruptions to forward and backward shipping. To make up for time, large ships now often cancel port calls on their routes and unload more containers at each call.
“Unfortunately, in the current congestion situation in Nordic ports, this is becoming a recurring phenomenon,” the Port of Rotterdam said.
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