US east coast ports have been impacted by congestion in US west coast ports and by larger tonnage cascading, but ports on both sides of the transatlantic are boosting trade opportunities
Slow cascading, an increase in ships sizes and a shift in cargo from US west coast to east coast ports have been some of the major trends on the transatlantic trade.
WSP technical director Dean Davison tells CST the trade generally remains stable, with capacity growth last year of 2.5%.
Nevertheless, the trade lane has been experiencing a cascading effect leading to an increase in tonnage size. Mr Davison says, “Shipping lines continue to concentrate on major East-West trades to the detriment of all others, but the cascade of tonnage is still happening with the transatlantic services. Cascading will continue, with the average ship size rising from 5,000 TEU now, with more vessels in the 8-10,000 TEU size class being deployed.”
However, east coast ports have been busy upgrading facilities and dredging to allow them to handle larger ships. Mr Davison says, “There are less port restrictions on the east coast North America than in the past, as many major ports have invested in infrastructure and water depths.”
East coast ports have not suffered anything like the level of congestion seen at US west coast ports due to the pandemic, although events at the latter have had a knock-on effect.
Mr Davison says, “There were some issues of congestion at US east coast ports at the back end of last year, caused by a shift of more cargo from west coast to east coast, with Charleston, Savannah and New York and New Jersey seeing some ships having to wait to access berths – consequently, for transatlantic vessels, some pressure on maintaining schedule integrity.”
The volumes recorded by Container Trades Statistics for the Europe to North America leg show volumes were only up by to 5.15M TEU in 2021 versus 2020 (although this does not include December 2021 volumes, which at time of writing were not available).
Mr Davison comments, “The impact of Covid in 2020, in March and April can clearly be seen with a volume drop-off. For 2021, the re-emergence of the pandemic in the summer period saw a drop after a stronger Q2. Interestingly, the end of 2020 and 2021 finished on largely the same volumes.”
For the North America to Europe leg, the 2.48M TEU acheived was 6% down year-on-year but was minus the December volumes total. Commenting on the pattern of volumes, Mr Davison says, “Again, the 2020 Covid-19 impact is clear in March and April and trade has remained flat thereafter. In 2021 trade was again flat, though less volatile. Likewise, 2020 and 2021 finished in a very similar position.
Ports boost trade
In the meantime, some of the major ports on the transatlantic have been boosting facilities and trade links for customers, as well as making the most of opportunities.
The USA remains the most important trading partner for the EU, and for the port of Antwerp, USA is at number one, Antwerp Port Authority director international relations and networks Luc Arnouts says. Containers (61%) and liquid bulk (30%) dominate the trade and traffic is growing, according to a 10-year trend.
Container traffic amounted to 1.4M TEU in 2020. In 2019 it was 1.5M TEU; for 2021, Mr Arnouts says the port will probably reach 1.6M TEU. It is a balanced trade: 53% Antwerp to USA, 47% USA to Antwerp. Mr Arnouts adds, “The American midwest is serviced both via US ports and Canadian ports (mainly Montreal); this last one is also a growing partner of Port of Antwerp.”
Port of Antwerp has 14 US services, connecting 19 ports. And relationships are important. Mr Arnouts says, “We have intensive collaboration with the ports of Houston and Montreal, including on sustainability, the energy transition and digitalisation.”
The transatlantic has been a booming trade for the port of Hamburg, with its marketing chief executive Axel Mattern telling CST, “We are in a perfect position for the US and Canadian trade”.
In 2021, the port had 5% more volumes on this trade than the previous year and 5% more compared with before the Covid pandemic.
Mr Mattern elaborates, “We did not have any disruptions to the US trade and what developed nicely was Canada, with 18% more trade in 2021 than 2020. Hamburg is in a good position, as we receive all the America services from Hapag-Lloyd.”
Hamburg has very strong hinterland connections, which is a huge benefit as most US and Canada traffic is related to hinterland destinations. Mr Mattern says, “A lot is coming from Europe export wise and coming via Hamburg with its excellent trade connections to these countries. Strong in US trades are Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Slovakia, and we have both imports and exports.”
A view from Canada
Over in Canada, Halifax port is focused on extending and becoming more efficient. Port of Halifax media relations and communications manager Lane Ferguson tells CST, “Halifax is a big ship port. We have a naturally deep, ice-free harbour and the necessary infrastructure to turn around ultra-class vessels (over 10,000 TEU and 350 m length overall) efficiently and reliably.”
The extension of the South End Container Terminal operated by PSA Halifax was completed in 2020 and with that in place, PSA Halifax has 800 m of continuous berth at 16 m depth which provides the terminal operator with “tremendous flexibility” when it comes to servicing vessels of any size. That berth is served by five super post-Panamax cranes.
He says, “The Port of Halifax is not seeing the congestion issues that some other ports are experiencing right now. Terminal operations remain fluid with open berth windows and no vessels waiting at anchorage. Plans are being developed to ensure infrastructure investment and development takes place ahead of capacity limits, but not so far ahead that development costs are carried unnecessarily. Our terminal operators, rail provider, ILA labour force and marine service providers are all working towards the same goal – increasing cargo volumes through Halifax in a way that is sustainable and efficient.”
Challenges include ensuring capacity and infrastructure continues to meet demand. “We are in the process of finalising a master plan that looks at port planning to 2070 and the various benchmarks that will trigger expansion projects,” says Mr Ferguson.
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