Felixstowe container ship diversions ‘will delay goods for up to three weeks’ as prices set to rise

Monday, 18 October 2021

Cargo including Christmas deliveries diverted from Britain’s biggest port to the Continent may take an extra two to three weeks to eventually arrive in the UK, a logistics operator has warned. 

Seaport Freight Services Ltd, which has been operating in Felixstowe for more than 30 years, said it expected the upheaval at the Suffolk port to add significantly to delivery times for goods arriving from the Far East. 

Delays at the port have already seen one major shipping line divert its super-sized container vessels away from Britain.

Steve Parks, director at Seaport Freight said it was not only clothing and Christmas goods that were caught up in the supply chain chaos, but foodstuffs from frozen fish to coconut milk and commodities from carpet tiles to forklift trucks. 

He added that goods would eventually arrive in Britain even if they had to come via Continental ports such as Rotterdam, but logistics companies and retailers were facing rocketing transportation costs that were likely to result in price rises. 

Danish shipping giant Maersk announced on Monday that it was diverting one of its giant Triple E container vessels a week  away from Felixstowe to the Continent, amid congestion at the British port. The logjam has been largely blamed on the ongoing shortage of lorry drivers.

As a result, about 4,000 UK-bound containers per week will now come to Britain via a more circuitous route, although the Port of Felixstowe has since insisted its situation has improved. 

Mr Parks said: “If vessels are docking in places like Rotterdam rather than Felixstowe then it will add another two to three weeks before those goods reach the UK. The fact is that the goods will still get here but the system is under enormous pressure and costs are rising dramatically. 

“If you wanted to send a container from Shanghai to Felixstowe 18 months ago it would have cost $3,000. Today it is $19,000 to $20,000.

“Some people are now finding that the cost of shipping that container exceeds the value of what they put in it. That is clearly unsustainable for a lot of businesses and they will end up passing on those costs.” 

Yesterday Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered an assurance that “there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available” while underlining that the Government was unable to singlehandedly fix a stuttering global supply chain. 

Speaking in Washington DC, where he has been attending a meeting of G7 finance ministers, said: “We’re doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate some of these challenges. They are global in nature so we can’t fix every single problem but I feel confident there will be good provision of goods for everybody.  

“I’m confident there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy.” 

Despite Mr Sunak’s vote of confidence in the troubled delivery system there was some evidence that consumers were already adjusting their expectations for the availability of desirable items.  

Polling by YouGov yesterday showed 26 per cent of people are concerned that items they may want to buy on Black Friday could be out of stock due to transport problems.

News Source : https://inews.co.uk/news/felixstowe-port-container-ship-diversions-delay-three-weeks-christmas-lorry-1249933