Saturated port carries ships with supplies for diversion from England – 12/10/2021

LONDON, 13 October 2021 (AFP) – Many container vessels carrying Christmas cargo have been diverted to other European ports as they could not die in British ports due to epidemics and Brexit congestion.

“To ensure that goods are widely available in the UK on Black Friday and Christmas, we have begun to modify one-third of our large ships that Felixstowe calls for the week,” a carrier told AFP on Tuesday. The world’s largest container transport company.

The concentration of dying docks is linked to the lack of truck drivers in the country due to Brexit and epidemics, which cause severe distribution problems at supermarkets and gas stations. To look around the situation, some ships unload their cargo at European ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp, and from there take small ships to Felixstow.

A spokesman for the group said port congestion was widespread in the world, but that this British port, through which 36% of maritime cargo in the UK passes, was “one of the three or four most affected ports”. The reason, according to him, is “empty containers are not removed at normal speeds due to the lack of truck drivers”.

Fears of a shortage of 100,000 drivers and widespread shortages at Christmas prompted the British government to revise its immigration policy and issue 10,500 temporary work visas.

cdu / bt / dbh / ag / lb

AP MOELLER-MAERSK