Did Port Congestion Just Pass the Covid Peak?

More capacity is waiting. But today’s fleet is much bigger.

Port congestion just crossed a number few expected to see again.

Last week, more than 4.25m TEU was waiting to berth.

The Covid peak was ~4.0m TEU.

That sounds worse than 2022.

But today’s global fleet is much bigger.

And this week, congestion has already eased to 3.8m TEU.

So is today’s congestion really worse than Covid?

Or does the headline hide a different capacity problem?

For rates and vessel availability, the difference matters.

Here are 5️⃣ signals behind it:

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1️⃣ The absolute record is real