Suez Canal Blocked by Containership

Freight

The grounding of the Ever Given containership in the Suez Canal on 24 March has resulted in a build-up of ships waiting to transit, industry media report. SSY vessel tracking show 6 Handysizes, 13 Handymaxes, 5 Panamaxes and 2 Capesizes vessels already at anchor to the north and south of the grounded vessel. This excludes vessels approaching the canal zone.

Fleet inefficiencies and congestion have been key factors in recent dry bulk earnings strength. Competition between soya and sugar shippers for export infrastructure capacity at Brazilian ports have contributed to a buildup of vessels. At time of writing there were a combined 111 bulk carriers of 40-99,999 dwt waiting to load cargoes outside the four Brazilian terminals of Paranagua, Santos, Sao Francisco do Sul and Tubarao.