Port stay duration increases 11% globally

The median time spent by container vessels in port began to grow sharply in the second half of 2020, continuing into the first half of 2021.

In Issue 532 of the Sunday Spotlight, analysts Sea-Intelligence used data published by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on port stays to shed light on the current bottleneck issue faced by the container shipping industry.

Calculations showed that the median time spent in port in first half of 2021 was higher by 11% compared to the pre-pandemic average time spent in port in 2018 and 2019.

Comparing this to the global demand data published by Container Trade Statistics (CTS) – which was up 5.5% over the same period – shows that the efficiency of the port calls themselves declined in 2021.

Compared to the other vessel types, the median time spent in port for container vessels recorded a far greater increase, Sea-Intelligence found.

Source: PortTech