European ports ‘overflowing’ as Trump tariffs cause congestion

Donald Trump’s erratic tariff policies combined with low river levels are causing Europe’s worst supply chain congestion since the coronavirus pandemic, shipping and logistics companies warn.

Barges have been left waiting days to pick up goods and container ships have faced long waits, with the problems — worst at the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg — expected to persist for at least several months.

“All the large hubs are overflowing,” said Caesar Luikenaar, managing director of WEC Lines, a Netherlands-based shipping company. A number of important ports across Europe were operating at their maximum capacity, Luikenaar said.

Albert van Ommen, chief executive of the Netherlands-based logistics company Euro-Rijn Group, said he thought the congestion was the worst since the pandemic, when cargo flows remained unexpectedly resilient and overwhelmed ports that were struggling with staffing.

The problems are the latest blow to a worldwide logistics system that had until recently allowed many companies to maintain minimal stock inventories, secure in the knowledge that scheduled shipping services would replenish stock regularly, to a fixed timetable.

One German logistics company, Contargo, has warned customers that barges are waiting an average of 66 hours to load containers at Antwerp and 77 hours at Rotterdam. Barges are normally offered fixed time slots to load at container terminals, to ensure they can remove the containers quickly and efficiently.

Casper Ellerbaek, a senior executive at Germany’s DHL, said the delays had not yet forced any of his customers to halt production because of component shortages but that such “drama” remained a risk.

Van Ommen said that at Antwerp, Europe’s second-busiest container port, ships were unloading between three and five days behind schedule.

“When we collect the containers by barge, they can’t load on time because the sea vessels aren’t on time,” Van Ommen said. “In the end, the customer or final end user is getting his stuff late.”

Logistics companies blamed the crisis on issues including the sharp changes of US tariff policy under US President Donald Trump, which have forced container shipping lines to revamp their networks to accommodate sharply changing worldwide trade flows.

The problems are being further exacerbated by restrictions on the loading of barges on the River Rhine after a dry spring left the water unusually shallow.

At the same time, terminals have been coping with a substantial realignment of alliances between shipping lines after Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping Company and Denmark’s Maersk, the two biggest container lines, ended their previous co-operation agreement. Such changes can lead to short-term disruption because they prompt lines to change their schedules or switch to different terminals.

Meanwhile, European ports are also coping with increased import volumes from Asia, as high US tariffs cause goods to be diverted elsewhere.

DHL’s Ellerbaek blamed the sharp growth in container volumes from Asia to Europe — which he estimated was running at about 7 per cent year-on-year — on changes of strategy by Asian exporters.

“If you look at the growth levels on the different trades, there’s no doubt that we’ve seen Europe take in a lot of share that historically would have been meant for the US market,” Ellerbaek said.

Industry figures said terminal operators — mostly private companies that lease quay space from publicly owned port authorities — were rushing to recruit new staff and buy new equipment to try to alleviate the strains.

ECT, one of the main terminal operators in Rotterdam, acknowledged the facility was “quite busy” but insisted the phenomenon was common across ports in northern Europe.

It pointed to the changes in alliances, rising demand and “geopolitical and economic uncertainties” as reasons for the issues. HHLA, the main terminal operator in Hamburg, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mark Rosenberg, chief commercial officer for ports and terminals at Dubai’s DP World, which owns terminals in locations including Antwerp and Rotterdam, said the company’s teams were “working diligently” to manage the flow of cargo and “mitigate disruption wherever possible”.

“DP World remains committed to maintaining high service levels, investing in capacity, and driving resilience across our European terminal network to support our customers through this period of industry-wide transformation,” Rosenberg said.

The Port Authority of Antwerp-Bruges, the public sector landlord for the port, acknowledged there was “prolonged, increased congestion”.

It added: “This leads to short-term operational inefficiencies, but our systems continue to function within the planned buffers.”

However, some in the industry expressed pessimism that the congestion could be easily resolved.

Luikenaar said some shipping companies serving the local market in Europe were being forced to spend a week, instead of the normal maximum of three days, collecting containers from different terminals at Rotterdam for distribution to the region’s ports.

He said it would take years for investments in capacity to resolve all of the problems.

He added: “This is not something that goes easily away.”