The past 12 months have proved troublesome for goods transportation, with COVID, Brexit, and the Suez Canal incident conspiring to bring significant disruptions and challenges, with longer lead times, and severe congestion at quaysides.
However, according to the monthly volume report from Danish international shipping and logistics company DFDS, there has been a recent easing of bottlenecks. The company reported that its total volumes were down by 5.4 per cent on the same month in 2020, although UK routes were in growth from 2019 levels, with a 7.9 per cent uptake in total volumes, reports Business Live.
DFDS said: “The decrease in total volumes compared to 2020 was due to lower volumes on most UK routes as stock building ahead of Brexit boosted volumes last year.”
The company added that the negative impact from supply chain bottlenecks eased in November, and North Sea and English Channel volumes in November were now above 2019 levels.
The company said the Mediterranean business unit continued to carry volumes above 2020 while Baltic Sea volumes were just below 2020 as capacity on one route was reduced from two ferries in 2020 to one ferry in November 2021.
Volumes for both the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea business units were above 2019.
The number of passengers on UK routes picked up but in very small numbers due to continued travel restrictions.
In total November saw DFDS carry 3.9 million freight lane metres of freight volume, up from 3.6 million in 2019 but down from 4.2 million in 2020. In the last 12 months, the figure is 7.9 per cent up, at 43.3 million compared to 40.1 million.
A perfect storm of issues had seen higher volume peaks at key deadlines in the Brexit process, with COVID then seeing travel restrictions and less appetite for international accompanied movements.
Normal container movements had been interrupted before Evergreen’s major blockage in the critical Middle East passage.
If you’re looking for heavy equipment shipping companies, talk to us today.
