KUALA LUMPUR: The shipping industry is experiencing a shortage of containers as shippers are keeping their containers longer than expected, resulting in prolonged shipments.
Westports Holdings Bhd group managing director Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said this problem has affected not only the logistics industry but also trading companies, manufacturers and retail businesses.
Ruben said the shipping container cycle had taken a long time as many countries were in lockdowns, thus affecting cargo movement as it did not move as efficiently in affected countries.
"The retail (business) did not move due to the lockdown. This has caused most of the warehouses to be fully-stacked with goods. That means containers stay full of goods as they cannot be unstuffed.
"Truckers were also unable to take the containers (with general cargo) out of the port due to the congestion caused by the rest of the supply chain," he told the New Straits Times recently.
As a result, Ruben said these containers were stuck longer at the port, creating congestion at the port and also a shortage of containers.
"Shippers must unload the cargo from the container so that it can be used again by other shippers.
"If the warehouse is full, they (cargo handlers) cannot open the containers to unload the cargo. Therefore, the cargo stuck inside the container for a much longer time," he explained.
He said a container shipping cycle typically averages about five to six shipments globally per annum. However, containers shipments took a longer time as shippers were keeping the goods/cargo in the box longer, especially during the pandemic,
As such, he said containers had fewer shipments between four and five cycles because of the pandemic.
For example, typically the shipment of containers takes about 50 days, and traders can have 7.0 shipments per year. If the cycle time takes about 100 days, containers utilisation will halve by 3.5 shipments annually.
"Hence, the amount of containers capacity available was halved. This contributed to the shortage of container boxes due to cargo that was stuck inside the container longer.
He said shippers had been experiencing supply chain issues between March and December last year, but the acute shortage was felt in the final month of 2020.
In December it was so bad that shippers started leaving containers in the ports even longer. This led to congestion at the ports, said Ruben.
"Now, we have no more congestion at all. However, we are wary that it could come back quickly as supply chains are still not back to normal.
"We understand if shippers cannot take the containers out of the port because the warehouses are full. We urge all shippers to clear their containers at the port and not extend the use of containers for too long.
"This allows faster shipment and will allow the supply chain can return to normal," he added.