Yard utilisation levels are below 60% at some container terminals in Northern Europe – just when they should be brimming with peak season imports.
A year ago, it was rare to see a ship-to-shore crane not boomed down at container hubs in the Le Havre – Hamburg range, with several ships anchored outside awaiting a berth.
But 12 months on, the 24,000 teu ultra-large vessels plying the Asia-North Europe tradelane can virtually secure a berth and work on arrival.
The first-half throughput figures at Rotterdam, the busiest container hub in North Europe, saw a decline of 8.1%, compared with the previous year, to 6.7m teu, impacted by the fall in imports from Asia and termination of cargo volumes to Russia.
