Container shipping companies continue to trump each other with ever larger ships. The ships are now so big that ports often can no longer accommodate them. Port companies are therefore calling a halt to the trend among container shipping companies, the Financieele Dagblad writes.
According to a Hamburg port manager, the power that shipping companies have is "absolutely insane". "They simply impose their will on ports," the manager said. The Antwerp port authority is also calling for collective reflection.
Port accessibility
With the size of ships, port accessibility is coming under pressure. Many ships are almost 400 metres long and about 60 metres wide. In addition, all containers carried on the ship have to be processed immediately and transported inland. This places high demands on hinterland traffic connections.
19,000 containers per ship
Ports have no time to anticipate the speed at which ships are getting bigger. In 2006, the Danish container ship Maersk Line was still the largest ship in the world. At the time, it could carry 'only' 13,500 containers. Whereas now it is normal to carry 19,000 containers on a ship. Thirty years ago, it was even unthinkable for a ship to carry more than 5,000 containers.
Read also: The race for the world's biggest freight container
Rotterdam is not worried
The Port of Rotterdam Authority is remarkably not worried about the gigantic ships. This is because the port is not restricted by a certain depth and width. This gives the port a major competitive advantage. 'That more and more very large container ships are coming into service is an irreversible process,' Alard Castelein, boss of the Port of Rotterdam Authority told the FD. 'Economies of scale are to Rotterdam's advantage and cannot be stopped, if you wanted to. Of course, looking together at how to address the effects smartly is always a good thing.'
'Airports also had to adapt their facilities'
The newspaper also discussed the issue with shipping company Hapag Lloyd. Spokesman Nils Haupt says he understands the pain of the ports, but believes they still need to move with the times. "It's the same as with airports, which had to adapt their facilities to the Airbus A380. Ports will have to invest in their infrastructure."
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