Global container port congestion is worsening despite continued investment by terminal operators, with maritime consultancy Drewry rejecting the view that a broad shortage of port capacity is the main cause, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.
Average ship waiting times nearly doubled between the first seven months of 2019 and the same period in 2026, while the average time a containership spends in port rose 31%. In early August, typhoons in China pushed average berth waiting times to 3.6 days.
Drewry said the deterioration reflects high asset utilisation, operational disruption and carrier practices that create sharp peaks in terminal demand rather than a single global trend of underinvestment.
The conclusion challenges A.P. Moller-Maersk chief executive Vincent Clerc, who said during a 13 August financial presentation that insufficient port capacity was contributing to congestion in Europe, the east coast of South America, West Africa and the Middle East.
“This growth and increasing trade imbalances comes on the heels of about 15 years since the financial crisis, where investment into terminal capacity has lagged,” Clerc said.
Across nine major container ports examined by Drewry, terminal capacity increased by an average 21% between 2019 and 2026, compared with 28% growth in volumes.
Singapore expanded capacity slightly faster than volumes, while capacity growth lagged cargo growth at Shanghai, Santos, Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Qingdao.
At Santos, Drewry linked congestion to delays involving the STS10 concession, landside transport constraints and very strong demand growth.
Rotterdam kept capacity broadly static after a smaller container terminal closed in 2020 as volumes declined and competition from larger terminals increased. Higher utilisation also leaves ports more exposed to disruption.
A terminal operating at 90% berth utilisation can take about one week to recover from a one-day disruption, compared with around two days at 75%.
Blank sailings, ad hoc sailings and extra loaders can compound the pressure by creating concentrated arrival peaks, congested yards and longer berth queues.
Hapag-Lloyd operational updates in late August cited severe congestion in Casablanca and congestion in Koper, with berth delays of up to eight days at Abidjan and four to six days at Tema.
Drewry said terminal operators in most regions continue to invest but cannot be expected to finance large amounts of spare capacity that generate little return under normal conditions.
“The container shipping ecosystem is currently built to optimise cost – not resilience,” Drewry said.
Drewry Shipping Consultants Limited was established in London in 1970 and operates in maritime research, maritime advisory, supply-chain consulting and maritime financial research, with more than 100 professionals and offices in London, Delhi, Singapore and Shanghai.