Port congestion crisis threatens global supply chains

A Shipping Australia expert says congestion at ports around the world are threatening global supply chains.

It comes as the ACCC warned that Australia’s recovery from the pandemic could be derailed as inefficient operators impose further cost to businesses and cause more delays.

But Head of Policy at Shipping Australia told Tom Elliott it’s a global problem that’s not exclusive to Melbourne.

“All around the world we’ve got enormous volumes of ships being stuck off port,” he said.

“In relation to the local situation, even before the pandemic our ports basically didn’t really have the performance that we need of them.

“Some of our ports have very low performance.

“If we’re talking about the number of boxes per hour per crane, and that’s a really key number because it tells you how fast you can onload and offload a ship.

“Some of those port were recording times 12 boxes per hour per crane, the world’s best are doing 60 … so there almost five to six time faster.

“So we’ve clearly got an issue.”

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