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ContainerSignal Daily: Port congestion absorbs 12% of box capacity

By Toni Tan · · 10 min read

Roughly 12% of global container ship capacity is currently absorbed by port congestion, the highest level in four years, according to C.H. Robinson’s October Edge Report reported by gCaptain. The logistics provider says the squeeze is concentrated in East Asia, Northern Europe and the Indian Subcontinent, and that it is cutting the capacity actually available to shippers even though underlying vessel supply remains healthy. Colombo has become the flashpoint: The Loadstar reports the Sri Lankan hub is handling record transhipment cargo while mainline services omit the port to recover schedules.

The distinction matters because congestion is not the same thing as a shortage of ships. As C.H. Robinson puts it, “Capacity may exist in the ocean network, but port congestion and steps the carriers are taking to get schedules back on track can change where and when that capacity is actually available.”

Today’s Signals

Freight Rates

Container freight rates between China and India have more than doubled since July 2026, as reported by the Free Press Journal, citing market updates from The Loadstar and Wedoimport. Spot rates from Shanghai to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, India’s largest container gateway, rose 20% between late August and late September to about US$3,700 per TEU and US$3,850 per 40ft container. Shanghai to Chennai rose about 25% month on month to roughly US$3,600 per TEU and US$3,900 per 40ft container. The reported driver is a rush of Indian industrial imports meeting tonnage redeployed away from intra-Asia toward higher-yielding east-west lanes. Our guide to container freight rate indexes explains how to read lane-level quotes like these.

On Asia to East Coast South America (ECSA), the Journal of Commerce reports that carriers plan rate increases over the coming weeks, but that forwarders and analysts doubt they will stick, with rates sliding from a two-year peak reached at the beginning of September. That article sits behind a paywall, so the plan is reported here as JOC describes it rather than from a fetched rate table.

Carrier Updates

Maersk and CMA CGM will end their cooperation on the ASAS2 service linking Asia with the East Coast of South America, per Container News. Maersk said the loop will be discontinued after its final sailing and that it will keep serving the trade through its fully Maersk-operated ASAS service, which it says continues normally under its own control. The Loadstar reports the joint ASAS2/SEAS3 service makes its last sailing from Shanghai on 8 December, with CMA CGM relaunching its SEAS 2 and SEAS A loops days later. The wider reshuffle: Zim quit Maersk’s ASAS loop in September to launch the AS3/ZFS with Hapag-Lloyd, while Yang Ming and PIL lose coverage on the CMA CGM-run loops, and Yang Ming falls back on the SX2 service it shares with ONE and HMM. The Loadstar’s read is that the three Premier Alliance lines end up sharing one ECSA loop averaging around 6,600 TEU. For how these vessel-sharing arrangements are structured, see what is a shipping alliance.

Ports

Colombo’s transhipment volumes rose 7.8% year on year in August alone, and transhipment now accounts for more than 82% of the port’s throughput, with turnaround times surpassing six days across multiple terminals, The Loadstar reports. Hapag-Lloyd has warned customers of two-to-three-day waits over the coming weeks, citing yard density above 130% of capacity across all terminals and bad weather. C.H. Robinson warns that when mainline services omit Colombo, South India cargo can miss planned connections even when space exists on the onward vessel, a particular risk for Tuticorin, Cochin and Chennai cargo.

Capacity is being added at the same hub. Adani Ports has completed the Phase II expansion of Colombo West International Terminal, doubling its capacity to 3.2 million TEU from 1.6 million TEU under a 35-year build-operate-transfer concession representing US$750 million of investment, per Maritime Gateway. The terminal says it can now handle three ultra-large vessels simultaneously and reached 2 million TEU within its first 18 months.

DP World has taken delivery of four new quay cranes for its UK container terminals, per Port Strategy. Two cranes weighing more than 2,000 tonnes and standing almost 150 metres tall arrived fully assembled at London Gateway on 25 September after travelling from Shanghai, with a second pair due at Southampton. Together with two cranes delivered in June, the Southampton equipment forms a £60 million investment this year and takes that terminal to 16 cranes. DP World says London Gateway and Southampton together handle 46% of UK containerised trade and moved more than 5 million TEU in 2025.

Trade Routes

The Colombo congestion is reshaping India-US routings. The Loadstar reports that much of the pressure stems from vessels and services shifting away from traditional Middle East transhipment hubs, and that alternatives such as Hambantota and India’s Vizhinjam are picking up transhipment work. On the US side, Georgia Ports Authority notes that some carriers are testing renewed Suez Canal routings for US-bound cargo, naming Maersk’s MECL and CMA CGM’s Indamex services, and says India to Savannah via Suez can cut 10 to 14 days from transit times, FreightWaves reports.

Fleet & Capacity

UNCTAD’s Liner Shipping Connectivity Index for September 2026 shows China at 1,347.6, more than double second-placed South Korea at 633.0 and Singapore at 626.7, FreightWaves reports. Eight Asian economies were among the world’s 15 best-connected in the third quarter. The index gauges a country’s integration into container networks through vessel calls, port capacity, carrier and service availability, largest ship size and the number of countries reached by direct services.

C.H. Robinson adds a practical point on how congestion eats capacity: a port omission after a voyage is already underway can be more disruptive than a planned blank sailing, because the shipper has no time to re-plan and the container may wait for another feeder, move through a different hub, or be recovered on an alternative service. See what is a blank sailing for that distinction.

What It Means

The through-line is that headline fleet capacity and usable capacity have diverged. Roughly one in eight units of global containership capacity is sitting in congestion rather than moving cargo, so shippers should treat port selection, transhipment exposure and feeder-to-mainline connections as core planning variables rather than afterthoughts. Where a mainline skips a port, a container may roll to another vessel or reroute through a different hub, which changes dwell time and can widen demurrage or detention exposure; see demurrage vs detention for who charges what.

On rates the picture is mixed rather than uniform. China to India intra-Asia lanes are firm on tight space, Asia-Europe pricing has been softening, and the planned Asia-ECSA increases face open scepticism from forwarders. Shippers on the ECSA trade should review their December routings now, before the revised carrier loops take effect, and split commitments where a single loop outage would leave them exposed.

Quick Bites

  • PSA International and Granite Asia have launched the G&P Strategic Innovation Fund, a US$50 million vehicle to invest in ports, logistics and supply-chain technology, per Maritime Gateway. PSA Group CEO Ong Kim Pong said AI and automation are becoming critical differentiators in global supply chains.
  • A pilot at Valenciaport’s Transbase Soler facility found that a passive radiative cooling coating developed by Barcelona startup Cooling Photonics cut the internal temperature of 20-foot containers by an average of 17.5°C at daily peak, with a maximum difference of 22°C on the hottest day, without consuming energy, WorldCargo News reports. Four identical containers were monitored over 15 consecutive days; the untreated container reached 53°C while the fully coated one never exceeded 34.2°C.
  • Carrix has sold a majority stake in its terminal operating system subsidiary Tideworks Technology to Los Angeles private equity firm Diversis Capital, per WorldCargo News.

Sources

Background reading

The explainers behind today's stories, if you want the fundamentals first.

Asia-Europe rates fall even as the container network stays tight

Asia-Europe spot rates fell for a twelfth week while intra-Asia set another record and mid-size tonnage ran scarce. The two readings measure different layers.

Asia-Europe spot rates extend their fall as Transpacific gains stall

Drewry's World Container Index fell 1% to US$4,434 per 40ft in the week to 1 October, Asia-Europe's twelfth weekly decline, while Transpacific gains slowed.

What is a blank sailing? Container capacity and schedules

A blank sailing is a scheduled container voyage or port call that a carrier cancels. Why they happen, how they are announced, and what shippers can do.

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