The problems with bottlenecks and overcrowded terminals in ports in Europe and the US are continuing to spike.

In particular, the problems in the container terminals in Europe through November and December have become considerably worse, Seaintelligence says.

"The aggregate data are quite clear – the development is presently negative in both Europe and North America. Despite the extensive focus on congestion issues, and the aim for resolution of same," states Seaintelligence in its latest newsletter.

Seaintelligence analysts have used data from the carrier HMM’s weekly update. The problems are according Seaintelligence driven by the recent coronavirus restrictions in China and Vietnam, where several ports have been closed including in Zhenhai, one of six districts under Ningbo, which has one of the world’s largest ports.

This conclusion comes even as port authorities in the US’s west coast at Los Angeles and Long Beach are seeing container numbers fall.

Meanwhile, the authorities had planned to introduce a fee for containers that wait too long in the port terminals. However, that fee has been deferred several times since the end of October.

The US President, Joe Biden, has also introduced measures to mitigate the problems in ports. But these measures have only had a limited effect, major carriers Hapag-Lloyd and ONE told ShippingWatch recently.

Fee on stranded containers in US ports pushed back another week

Container carriers only see limited effect from Biden's port measures