Asia's Port Congestion in Four Questions: 891 Ships at Anchor and a 12.2% On-Time Rate in Shanghai

The typhoons have moved on. The queues have not. Here are the four questions shippers are asking this week, with the numbers that matter.

How bad is the congestion, really?

Bad enough to show up in global capacity data. Sea-Intelligence puts Asian ports' August schedule reliability at 32.2%, with late vessels an average of 7.28 days behind. Chinese ports fell to 23.9% from 35.8% in July; Shanghai managed just 12.2% and Ningbo-Zhoushan 16.9%. After Typhoon Saudel forced closures, around 90 ships waited more than a week for a Shanghai berth. Linerlytica counted 891 container ships at anchor globally in early October, and industry estimates suggest roughly 4 million teu — 12.6% of world fleet capacity — is currently absorbed by port congestion, a four-year high.

Is it just a China problem?

No. Singapore's reliability slid from 42.6% to 32.4%, and transshipment delays there are running two to four weeks, according to Oceanbridge's 21 October advisory. Colombo transshipment is severely congested (Zencargo, 20 October), and yard utilisation is elevated at Antwerp, Rotterdam, Southampton, London Gateway, Hamburg and Bremerhaven. Carriers have responded by cutting 12-15% of Asia-US capacity for October and November (J.M. Rodgers), with blank sailings concentrated on the Empire, Amberjack, Emerald and TP12 east coast loops. Spot rates reflect the squeeze: China-US West Coast around $8,000 per feu, East Coast holding above $9,000 in mid-October (Freight Right).

Has any port handled the typhoons well?

Ningbo-Zhoushan is the counter-example. Through 74 dynamic vessel adjustments (56 diverted calls, 18 double-calls) and cross-terminal coordination, it cut average waiting time back to about one day by 9 October, lifted daily throughput from 130,000 to 142,000 teu, and posted a record 4.27 million teu for September, up 11.5% year on year. Shanghai's queue, by contrast, shrank more slowly — from 129 ships on 7 September to 47 on 28 September (Portcast) — and Dimerco expects heavy congestion to persist into mid-to-late October with berthing delays beyond five days.

What should shippers do before year-end?

Three things. First, stretch booking lead times from two weeks to three or four — forwarders from Europe to the transpacific are now saying the same. Second, re-time transshipment cargo: anything routing via Singapore or Colombo needs at least a fortnight of buffer, and direct services are worth paying for. Third, lock the fine print — rate validity windows, demurrage clauses and rollover terms — because a container rolled into a new pricing period can pick up another increase on top of the delay. The window stays tight through December on most reads, and some forwarders are already planning for congestion into early 2027.

Yufeng International Logistics holds contracted space with major carriers on its Europe services and can arrange fallback options against rollovers — see the Europe routes page or write to sales@ruixincargo.com.

Sources: Based on reporting by Sea-Intelligence, Portcast, Linerlytica, J.M. Rodgers, Dimerco and Oceanbridge.