The port admitted that volumes still do not meet expectations.
The Port of Felixstowe on England’s east coast still appears to be experiencing disruption, which began when it implemented its new terminal operating system, nGen, during the second weekend in June.
Although the port said last Tuesday that performance of its new terminal operating system had been “stable” over the last few weeks, it did admit that total volumes still did not meet its expectations.
It also appears the port still has work to do in regaining shipping services after many carriers decided to divert cargo to other ports.
The port said last week it was “in discussion with shipping line customers for the return of services as soon as possible.”
BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool shows the port is currently called by 22 fully cellular container services that also sail to regions outside Britain, including 12 that sail to regions outside North Europe and the Mediterranean.
This is a significant decline from mid-June, when the port was called by 27 fully cellular container services that also were calling regions outside Britain, including 14 that sailed to regions outside North Europe and the Mediterranean.
“We have already introduced a number of system upgrades, which stabilized and improved our productivity in the last few weeks,” the port said last Tuesday. “However, there are a number of focused upgrades to be delivered in the coming two weeks, which will further enhance and improve productivity of the yard, thereby improving the loading of containers and continue to improve overall productivity across our shipside and landside operations. We expect these important upgrades to bring our productivity to levels before the implementation of the new system.”
Robert Keen, director general of the British International Forwarders Association (BIFA), which represents more than 1,500 U.K.-registered companies in the logistics and supply chain management sector, said last Wednesday that the association’s members were still facing significant problems at the port. Keen said problems included shipping lines canceling calls or operating a cut-and-run policy, which is when a ship leaves before all containers that are booked are loaded or discharged.
“Those members are also experiencing knock-on effects at other U.K. ports where vessels are being diverted, causing additional cost and disruption,” Keen added.
Regarding any improvements that have been made since Keen’s statement last week, he told American Shipper Monday, “According to a contact, the situation as of today is that the landside operations are working satisfactorily in that vehicles are collecting and delivering OK, but of course, do remember the volumes are down so they should be working fine.”
He added that ship working has not improved.
“One member told me an MSC vessel arrived this morning, and when checking as to when he could deliver exports, he was told not before Wednesday as they could not cope and the vessel is not due to sail until Thursday,” Keen said Monday. “On China shipping vessels this week, one has to be off the berth by 17:00 tomorrow to allow the next one in when upon the first will go to anchor off the port and then return to complete discharge 48 hours later.”
Port of Felixstowe problems persist
