For those who wonder what the above map is about, it concerns the port of Shanghai, where hundreds of ships (in red dots tankers and green cargo ships) are waiting to load or unload cargo. The reason for this big “jam” is the closure, or very slow operations, in the Port of Shanghai due to a COVID-19 lockdown.

For European seaports terminals and EU supply and logistics chains, it is quite obvious that the cascading effects resulting from the situation prevailing in Shanghai will be tremendous. The risks of congestion and disruption once these ships massively head for and call at EU ports and terminals are very high. “It is very urgent to anticipate and get organized. Stakeholders representing shipping lines, port
authorities, seaport terminals, shippers, freight forwarders, pilots, tug operators, inland transport operators, rail operators, road transport operators, etc. should very soon gather under the patronage of the EU Commission to discuss how we can individually and collectively prepare to avoid a “nightmare” for EU logistics and supply chains, otherwise EU consumers and businesses will be
penalized”, states FEPORT Secretary General, Ms. Lamia Kerdjoudj-Belkaid. FEPORT therefore calls for an urgent initiative from the EU Commission to gather all interested parties to discuss contingency plans.

“After COVID-19, the Ever-Given incident, the congestion in other regions of the world, the lasting low levels of schedule reliability and the consequences of the implementation of sanctions on Russia, EU seaports terminals (employers and employees) cannot be once again the “buffer” absorbing all the shocks and pressure that will result from the situation prevailing in Shanghai. We need commitments from all parties to act in order to adapt to the situation that will affect European ports in 8 to 12 weeks from now”, concludes FEPORT Secretary General. FEPORT looks forward to continuing the good cooperation with EU institutional stakeholders and all sister organizations in the interest of EU consumers and businesses.
Source: FEPORT