Bulker Congestion in China Reaches All Time High
Bulker Congestion Rising Fast in China Amid California Backlog
China is enforcing tougher COVID requirements for inbound vessels, causing unprecedented congestion.
Every bulker anchored in China means less capacity to load US soybeans, corn, wheat, and coal, driving up spot freight rates for US bulk exports. Most bulker spot rates are now at or above 10-year highs and dry bulk rates are rising due to high demand and limited vessel supply in container transportation.
Bottleneck in container shipping is being caused by COVID-era consumer spending shifts, while congestion in dry bulk shipping is driven by COVID-era port measures.
COVID laws have been causing delays all year, but the delta variant breakout in China this month has increased limitations.
