According to wwd.com, container port congestion in eastern China — triggered by multiple typhoons — has driven global stranded container capacity to 4.3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), surpassing the 4 million TEU peak recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022.
Global Berthing Backlogs Hit Record Levels
Linerlytica’s Monday data shows that 139 vessels were queued at the Port of Shanghai last Monday — the highest count observed across both 2025 and 2026. At the Port of Ningbo, 77 ships waited to berth, also marking recent highs. Though the total fleet capacity has expanded to 34.4 million TEUs — up from 25.3 million TEUs in 2022 — stranded containers still represent 12.6 percent of the global fleet, compared to the 15.7 percent peak during pandemic-era bottlenecks.
Carrier Adjustments and Service Cancellations
Maersk confirmed in a customer advisory that the Malta-flagged Delos Wave 630N, part of the Asia-to-Oceania Northern Star service, will omit its call at the Port of Shanghai to preserve schedule integrity. The vessel departed New Zealand’s Port of Tauranga on Aug. 15 and will instead dock at Xiamen on Friday before proceeding to Hong Kong. This cancellation followed two earlier reroutings — the Seaspan Guayaquil and AS California — both shifted from Shanghai to Xiamen. Maersk expects those vessels to resume Shanghai calls by October.
Capacity Avoidance and Terminal Impacts
Per Hapag-Lloyd’s operational update dated Aug. 18, at least 320,000 TEUs of capacity under the Gemini Cooperation avoided Shanghai over a two-week period. An additional 70,000 TEUs — primarily operating on Hapag-Lloyd’s Latin American services — bypassed Ningbo, while roughly 75,000 TEUs were lost at Yantian Container Terminal after Shenzhen was omitted from rotations. One shared Asia-to-Mediterranean loop (AE15/SE3) departing Qingdao was canceled outright; it had been scheduled to leave on Sept. 7.
Freight Rate Surge Amid Infrastructure Strain
Shanghai-to-U.S. ocean spot freight rates rose 9 percent on both West and East Coast routes, according to Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) as of Thursday. Cargo to New York reached a 2026 peak of $9,507 per 40-foot container, while Los Angeles averaged $6,802. Capacity declined 9 percent month-over-month on the Asia-to-U.S. East Coast route in August and fell 0.4 percent sequentially on the West Coast path. Drewry’s Intra-Asia Container Index (IACI) climbed 6 percent this week to $1,091 per 40-foot container — the third straight weekly increase.
Infrastructure Gaps Under Global Scrutiny
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc stated earlier this month that Shanghai’s waiting-to-berth times reached as much as 12 days, underscoring broader infrastructure gaps. He noted that port congestion reflects a wider need for global gateways to strengthen terminal and inland infrastructure as container demand grows. Hapag-Lloyd reported average waiting times of five to six days for Gemini Cooperation services at Shanghai’s Yangshan deepwater port, and seven to eight days for non-Gemini services. At Ningbo, wait times range from three to four days for Gemini loops and three days for non-alliance services; Qingdao averages 72 hours for both service types.
Source: wwd.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
