Port Congestion Breakbulk & Project Cargo
Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg( pictured) are among the most congested, but Asian ports and transshipment hubs are also under pressure. COSCO Shipping
Amid a series of extreme heat waves, water levels in the Rhine have been falling and are“ forecast to go down even further,” Thomas Kowitzki, vice president and head of multimodal at DHL Global Forwarding, said during an Aug. 12 webinar organized by DHL.“ That is not good. The Rhine is not just a river... it’ s one of the most important supply chain corridors in Europe.”
Ann De Smet, key account manager / maritime business for the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, said container congestion has been a problem since the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated by vessels diverting around the Cape of Good Hope, Russia’ s invasion of Ukraine and, more recently, the Middle East war.
“ None of this helps the schedules of the big container carriers, and that’ s the main reason the terminals are congested; because the vessels can’ t keep their schedules,” she said.“ It is the same in every container port in Europe.”
That creates a problem for project cargoes moved in containers, but de Smet believes project cargo will remain“ an important business for container carriers, which have been building teams and investing to handle this.”
Landside challenges mount
Sources cited several factors contributing to landside congestion at European ports, including the phasing in and out of services, large call sizes, schedule reliability, work interruptions, and challenging weather conditions.
“ These factors have led to increasing waiting times on the land side of the deep-sea terminal operations,” a Port of Rotterdam spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.“ As a result, the inland shipping sector and road transport are experiencing longer waiting times than usual.”
Rotterdam is investigating improvements to boost efficiency and resiliency, including smarter use of infrastructure. That includes shifting more road transport to off-peak hours, bundling and exchanging cargoes on inland waterway corridors, and sharing data via digital platforms, the spokesperson said.
“ That’ s the main reason the terminals are congested; because the vessels can’ t keep their schedules.”
Some delays in Antwerp are due to problems further up the supply chain, rather than holdups at the port. For example, the new Ineos ethane cracker in Antwerp has been delayed because critical modular components, including high-pressure boilers and stainless-steel pipe racks, are stranded in the Middle East, de Smet said.
Axel Mattern, CEO at Germany’ s Port of Hamburg Marketing, said all the main European container ports have problems,“ but the problems are totally different.”
12 Journal of Commerce | September 2026 www. joc. com