Kiel Trade Indicator 05/22: Container ship congestion reaches the North Sea

The latest Kiel Trade Indicator data update for May shows a slight drop of 1 percent in global trade compared with the previous month (price and seasonally adjusted). The indicator values for Germany are also weak, with exports in the red (-1.2 percent) and imports in the green (+1.6 percent). The picture for the EU (exports: -1 percent; imports: +0.4 percent) and the USA (exports: -1.3 percent; imports: +1.8 percent) is similarly ambiguous. China stands out positively among the major economies in May, although this may also be due to the weak April. In comparison, exports are likely to have risen slightly (+2.1 percent) and imports even significantly (+7 percent).  

"Overall, May trade is rather restrained and continues the sideways movement of recent months. However, international trade is again suffering more from the congestion and delays in container shipping, which have now also reached the North Sea," says Vincent Stamer, Head of Kiel Trade Indicator. 

For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, container ships are also jammed in the North Sea off the ports of Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Here, just under 2 percent of global cargo capacity is currently stuck and can neither be loaded nor unloaded. In the German Bight, about a dozen large container ships with a total capacity of about 150,000 standard containers are waiting to call at Hamburg or Bremerhaven. Off the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, the situation is even more dramatic. In contrast, the container ship congestion off Los Angeles, i.e. off southern California, has receded entirely. 

Congestion near Shanghai and the neighboring Zheijang province currently ties up more than 3 percent of global cargo. However, more ships were able to leave the port of Shanghai, which was affected by the lockdown. In the second half of May, departures were at a comparable level to China's other ports. At present, however, they are again around 15 percent lower. To date, exports worth up to 700 million euros from China to Germany have been lost due to the lockdown in Shanghai.  

"However, the fact that Shanghai exports have risen again in recent weeks despite lockdown measures also shows that companies there are on the starting blocks and will probably be able to ramp up production again quickly if the lockdown ends," Stamer says. 

Overall, more than 11 percent of all goods shipped worldwide are currently stuck in traffic jams. In the Red Sea—the most important maritime trade route between Asia and Europe—the gap between expected and actually shipped cargo volumes has grown to around 16 percent, having almost closed in February. 

The next Kiel Trade Indicator updates will be on June 21 (without media information) and July 6 (with media information for June 2022 trade data). 

For more information on the Kiel Trade Indicator and forecasts for 75 countries and regions, visit  www.ifw-kiel.de/tradeindicator.