Seatrade-Maritime: Asian port congestion forcing container lines back to the Red Sea

Published by Seatrade-Maritime

Container ship capacity delayed in Asia following a series of tropical storms has reached 2.4 million teu and has seen carriers revert services to the Red Sea to compensate.

Long delays are expected to spread along China’s eastern seaboard from Shanghai to Ningbo as far south as the country’s Guangdong ports, after terminal operations halted on 7 and 8 August, and it is expected to take weeks before the backlog is cleared.

“Typhoon Dolphin hit China’s eastern coasts on 9 August 2026. The tropical storm is the third and strongest to hit China in the last five weeks alone, forcing ships to take shelter away from the path of the typhoon,” commented Linerlytica.

Asian port congestion has seen both Maersk and CMA CGM look to free up capacity by returning three services loops via the Bab el Mandeb in “defiance of the Houthi threat”, said Linerlytica, with Cosco Shipping expected to join them.

“These moves are aimed at combating the shortage of vessels and container equipment that have been made worse by protracted port congestion across North Asia and Europe,” reported Linerlytica in its weekly market report.

Peter Sand, senior analyst at Xeneta noted that transits via the Bab el Mandeb had declined in recent weeks and is sceptical about whether the latest rerouting of vessels is connected to Asian congestion.

“It would make sense if that was the reason for the extra services going through Suez soonish. But it’s not a quick fix – and I would hesitate to connect the two events,” commented Sand.

Xeneta also pointed out that while the backlog may seem enormous Asian ports can recover at speed, pointing to Shanghai making more than 200,000 container moves in a single day.

Meanwhile, Cosco Shipping could also join CMA CGM and Maersk on the Suez route with the expansion of its Red Sea and Mediterranean services by utilising space on its multi-purpose vessels, of which the Chinese operator has 20 vessels of up to 3,600 teu, already deployed on these trades.

Even though Linerlytica reports that Asian port congestion is tightening available capacity the consultant has reported that European spot rates have continued to slide with “softening cargo demand, dashing hopes for a mid-August rate hike

According to Linerlytica spot rates to North Europe are now at between $4,300 to $4,900 per feu, “with a downward bias”.

Xeneta data shows a similar North European spot rate with Mediterranean cargo at around $5,800 per feu, with both trades expected to flat line up to mid-late August after losing ground at the beginning of the month.