The warehouses of the Far Eastern ports are overcrowded, ships stand in long queues, and it takes 40 days to wait for cargo.
Currently, most ports cannot handle too high load.
Businessmen complain: before, it was enough to order cargo and wait, without even wondering where and how it is transferred from ships to wagons or trucks.
Now everything is more complicated: an entrepreneur may know that his boxes are lying, for example, in the Vostochny port. But who would pay to get these boxes to their business?
Many companies are already beginning to take into account the current situation.
For example, French CMA-G GM has officially announced that it is not accepting applications for shipments to the Vostochny port, and its vessels will not even call there any time soon.
All this is due to the fact that in this port, as in many neighboring ports, the processing speed of cargo traffic has significantly decreased. But this phenomenon also has its reasons.
Why can’t the port handle the flow of cargo?
One of the voiced reasons is the installation of a new terminal system TOS, which was launched in mid-September.
But this, however, is far from the main problem. The system is being actively tested, and its shortcomings are eliminated.
However, there are a number of issues that are much more difficult to fix:
High loads due to delayed demand due to the pandemic.
Lack of staff (many ports have coronavirus restrictions). This is especially true for Asian ports.
Shortage of containers, many of which have not yet returned to Asian countries from Europe and the United States, where they were sent last year.
Traffic jams on the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway complicate the removal of containers by road.
The fuel crisis and inflation in major currencies are driving up freight prices.
In this situation, a partial solution could be the removal of the accumulated goods with the help of Russian Railways.
Not so long ago, the issue of the admissibility of using gondola cars (instead of specialized platforms) for transporting containers was actively discussed. In the current situation, this can become not just an alternative, but almost the only salvation.
However, today many cargoes do not even reach Russian Railways.
After all, in order for the car to go, it must first be loaded. While cargo is on ships or in port warehouses, there is simply not enough capacity to carry out loading and unloading operations.
At the same time, as noted in the ports, they mainly cope with the processing of those cargoes that were contracted earlier. As for the extraordinary parties, yes — there may be problems with this.
So far, no one can offer a complete solution to this problem.
One of the solutions could be a large-scale re-equipment and expansion of ports, but this is not a matter of one day. While the goods are piling up every minute.
And it is quite possible that a new crisis will come from the ports.
Those businessmen who cannot wait for critical raw materials or equipment for several weeks are not at all funny today.
