According to foreign media reports, congestion in Vancouver, the gateway to Canada's west coast, will further worsen in the coming weeks, including Maersk MSC、 A batch of ships including Yangming were delayed. The main reasons for this are the ongoing alliance restructuring, limited inland railway hubs, and decreased reliability of shipping schedules.

Hapag Lloyd recently told customers, "Both Canadian Railways and Canadian National Railways have implemented graded operational restrictions to cope with the severe winter weather across Canada. These measures include shortening train operating times and reducing train speeds, which have resulted in slight delays." "It is expected that these situations will continue for another 10-14 days, leading to increased import dwell times

The shipping company Hai stated that the utilization rate of Vancouver GCT Delta terminal has reached 102%, with vessel "berth delays of 9 days", while DP World Centerm has a utilization rate of 83%, with vessel berth delays of 4 to 9 days.

The railway restrictions have also led to an increase in the dwell time of imported containers. Currently, the dwell time for GCT Delta is 4.1 days, and for DP World Centerm it is 5.9 days.

However, Destiny Ozuygur, the head of forecasting and operations at the shipping database eeSea, explained that although berth planners at the port are expected to be busy for several weeks, a detailed observation of the ships waiting for berths in Vancouver reveals that there are other factors contributing to the current situation. At present, about 25% of the ships in the port are waiting for berths, some of which have been waiting for a long time, thus pushing up the average waiting time for overall berths.

These include: Maersk Monte Olivia, waiting for 9 days; Marcos V (9 days); MSC Utmost VIII (11 days); Seaspan Falcon (7 days); YM Movement (7 days); YM Plum (6 days); YM Tranquility (10 days); And YM Uniform (8 days)

A "MSC Elisa XIII" with a load capacity of 13100 TEU, according to eeSea's records, has been waiting for 16 days, but there are gaps in its waiting status, which may indicate that it is repositioning and show how the port is at the mercy of liner customers.

Ozuygur pointed out that for the staff at the Port of Vancouver, these severely delayed vessels (although not all) have indeed posed significant challenges to berth planning. But these ships are often part of alliance service routes that have been delayed for a long time and are gradually being phased out.

Taking the 6350 TEU "Marcos V" operated by Maersk Line as an example, the ship is about to exit the 2M Trans Pacific WCNA Loop 5 route, with a delay of about 16 days at its previous port of call, Prince Rupert Port. This means that it must be delayed by about 28 days from the ship's expected schedule to dock in Vancouver.

Ozuygur added, "A ship that arrived more than two weeks later than planned, and a ship whose expected arrival time has been fluctuating, cannot be transferred to the front of the team in a short period of time