Congestion in European Ports Expected to Worsen

According to the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), “container transport from China to Europe is expected to increase by a factor of 8 to 11 by 2020 depending on the scenario.” Congestion at even the largest ports in Europe is already causing severe delays in deliveries, and shipowners, container terminal operators, and others are feeling the crunch.

Seventy-three percent of container ships were late arriving in European ports in the first quarter of 2007 because of docking delays. This is a marked increase from the 45 percent in the same time period in 2006. Some of the biggest ports in Europe, Felixstowe and Southampton in Britain, Hamburg in Germany, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, all had to turn away container ships this year because there was no docking space.

These delays, the industry’s outrage, and other factors caused the ECMT to hold a meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 30 and 31 to discuss only one topic: “Congestion: A Global Challenge.”
In the meeting, the Transport Ministers decided that there was a “need to develop a comprehensive strategy to mitigate congestion.” Most importantly, the strategy would need to center on:

• improving system management through traffic management measures, improvements at inter-modal interfaces and trade facilitation, including measures to improve administrative and customs procedures; new technology -- in particular Intelligent Transport Systems -- that can facilitate traffic flows through better information to users, dynamic traffic management and reduced headways;

• implementing pricing measures: road congestion charging in London, Stockholm and Singapore has achieved significant reductions in urban congestion. Other charging initiatives involving intercity roads, railways, ports and airports have also proven their effectiveness in improving traffic flows;

• improving infrastructure capacity through appropriate investments that will produce clear socio-economic returns when measures for the better use of existing capacity have reached their limits.

The Transport Ministers agreed that they needed to take the lead in order to implement this strategy, but they would also need to foster political support and public awareness to fully tackle the rising problem of congestion. The full press briefing can be read at http://www.cemt.org/events/PressReleases/07sofia.pdf.

This plan sounds good on paper, but until it is implemented, European ports will just have to try to keep up with Asian imports. However, as container shipping is estimated to increase 7.8 percent a year through 2011 and European port capacity is only increasing at 4.2 percent, it does not seem likely. Moreover, current conditions at Felixstowe and Southampton, Hamburg, and Rotterdam seem to suggest that congestion is only going to worsen before it gets better.