“Today, Maersk warned customers that it had noted congestion at the Kenyan gateway of Mombasa, due to “higher-than-expected yard density” and “equipment challenges”. 

These factors, it explained, meant delays in vessel berthing and departure. 

According to the eeSea database, Mombasa has 11 vessels in port and seven waiting to berth. The nearby port of Dar Es Salaam reported nine vessels in port and 20 waiting.”

“Notwithstanding the ramifications of the new tariffs in the US this week, container carriers have long been preparing for a slowdown on the key transpacific trade during February.

According to new analysis from the eeSea liner database, the liner industry offered a combined capacity of 1,328,000 teu on the Asia-North America west coast trade in January, compared with a proforma 1,463,000 teu of scheduled capacity.”

“Maersk is confident that its key South-east Asia hub of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) will handle the pressure of being the most important global hub in the upcoming Gemini Cooperation network.(…)
However, according to the eeSea liner database, last year PTP operated at close to 100% utilisation – it has a stated annual capacity of 12.5m teu and saw throughput of 12.12m during 2024.”

“Today, Gdansk is host to some 15 liner services, according to the eeSea liner database, including five Asia-Europe services, and this is unlikely to change with the alliance reshuffle taking place in a few days’ time – while the end of the 2M will see Maersk’s calls at the port served through a shuttle string from Bremerhaven, under its new Gemini arrangement.”

“The pervasive headwinds of Q4 24 translated into yet another decline in ocean shipping schedule reliability – but there are signs of a welcome respite for shippers on the horizon.

Liner database eeSea today published its Schedule Reliability Scorecard, which reveals average delays reached 4.8 days globally in Q4, up on Q3’s average of 4.5 days.”

“In an analysis last week, eeSea head of operations and forecasting Destine Ozuygur tipped the French carrier and its Chinese partners to be the first to return to the canal, given “the relatively generous timing for Ocean Alliance’s new Day 9 network roll-out in April, and previous tests from CMA CGM, OOCL, and Cosco on their partnered non-alliance services suggest we could see an early appearance on these schedules first.”

“According to the eeSea liner database, the current CES service has seven ships deployed with an average capacity of 2,500 teu, and the redesigned port rotation means a call at Kingston has also been dropped.

Hapag-Lloyd said customers needing to ship to the Jamaican hub would need to tranship at Colombia’s port of Cartagena, which is served on the German carrier’s Europe-South America west coast SWX service, which it operates in cooperation with CMA CGM and Cosco, and on which Maersk and OOCL charter slots, according to eeSea.”

“With the whole world talking about the Israel-Palestine ceasefire announcement, it’s expected that supply chain stakeholders will be eyeing any immediate impacts to now well-established routing past the Cape of Good Hope. "After all, expectations for Europe - Middle East, Transatlantic and Asia - Europe trades have long since shifted," says the latest update from eeSea.”

“Following yesterday’s announcement from Japanese container line ONE that it is to participate in three transatlantic services with Ocean Alliance carriers, there was further confirmation today that next year will see the Ocean and Premier alliances jointly operating transatlantic networks.

According to analysts at liner database eeSea, the network rejigs represent a reform of the current transatlantic services operated as THE Alliance, which is set to be replaced by the Premier Alliance at the beginning of February.”

“According to the eeSea liner database, the CGX service deploys 12 vessels, with an average 4,200 teu capacity, while Hapag-Lloyd said the new rotation would kick off with the departure of the 6,500 teu Copiapo from Shanghai on 3 January.”