Vessels at the world's two busiest container ports now wait 10 days to berth at Shanghai and Ningbo, with consultancy Linerlytica estimating 3.92m teu — 11% of the global container shipping fleet — caught in the resulting logjam as of 1 September.

The queue has built since Typhoon Saudel swept through East Asia last week and forced terminal shutdowns across the Yangtze River Delta. Operations restarted on Friday, but accumulated backlogs and vessel bunching are keeping wait times in double digits.

How concentrated is the congestion?

Linerlytica puts North Asia's share of global port congestion at 54%. Around 2.5m teu of capacity now sits at anchor off the region's berths.

APL Logistics framed Saudel as the latest in an unusually punishing typhoon cycle. The forwarder said the storm "added to unprecedented levels of global port congestion," citing vessel delays, terminal congestion, equipment imbalances and schedule disruptions across China and neighbouring markets.

Five successive storms have battered schedules since late August:

• Typhoon Bavi
• Typhoon Noul
• Typhoon Dolphin
• Typhoon Narra
• Typhoon Saudel

What does this mean for shippers and carriers?

Spot container rates remain very firm on the transpacific and on most other major lanes. Asia-Europe is the sole exception, where rates dropped for two straight months on falling demand to North Europe.

Shippers holding bookings through Shanghai or Ningbo now face:

• 10-day anchor wait before berthing
• Likely cargo roll-overs to subsequent vessel calls
• Mounting schedule slippage on east-west strings

How tight is the charter market?

Container ship newbuilding deliveries fell to a three-year low of 64,640 teu, Linerlytica reported, after summer holidays at Asian yards and a thin order book stretching back to early 2023. Eighteen new charter deals were recorded in the past week alone.

Prompt tonnage has all but disappeared in the larger classes. "Many of the ships in the larger sizes above 4,000 teu were fixed-forward months earlier, with no prompt tonnage available," Linerlytica said.

Carriers are recycling the same hulls within a shrinking pool of charterers. "Ships are changing hands in a circular fashion, as carriers continue to scramble for new charters to replace redelivered tonnage," the consultancy added.

What happens next?

With typhoon-driven berthing delays compounding a thin newbuild pipeline and a rebounding charter market, transpacific spot and contract rates look set to stay elevated through the rest of the third quarter — even as Asia-Europe rates continue to soften on weak European demand.