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Container ships stuck off Los Angeles/Long Beach are grabbing the
headlines — with a record-tying 40 at anchor on Friday. But there’s
another massive shipping traffic jam out there, one that’s holding up even
more cargo.

This other, less-publicized tale of seaborne gridlock is set in China and
it’s not about container ships, it’s about dry bulk carriers.

Bulker congestion has now risen to historic highs as China enforces
stricter COVID rules for arriving vessels. And what happens in China will
be felt in America. Every bulker stuck at anchor in China is one less ship that’s available to load U.S. soybeans, corn, wheat and coal — pushing
spot freight rates for U.S. bulk exports higher.

“It is staggering how much congestion there is [in China],” said Martyn
Wade, CEO of Grindrod Shipping (NASDAQ: GRIN), on a conference call with analysts on Thursday.

Highest congestion on record
According to Nick Ristic, lead dry cargo analyst at Braemar ACM
Shipbroking, there were 1,692 bulkers worldwide with aggregate capacity of
142 million deadweight tons (DWT) waiting in queues in mid-August,
equating to 15.9% of global capacity. That was “the highest level we have
on record and about 15% higher year on year,” he said. Since then, the
numbers have come down only slightly, to 1,652 ships totaling 129 million
DWT.

In comparison, U.K.-based data provider VesselsValue reported that there
are 409 container ships stuck in congestion worldwide with an aggregate capacity of 2.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units. Not only are there
far more bulkers tied up than box ships, but a typical bulk vessel carries
much more cargo (measured by weight) than the average container ship.

China is driving the rise in global dry bulk congestion, comprising more
than a third of the total, said Ristic. Bulker congestion in China hit
52.7 million DWT in mid-August, representing 6% of global capacity, up 28%
from mid-July and 23% year on year. Bulker congestion was also high
outside of China, but in line with seasonal norms.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/china-bulker-pileup-dwarfs-california- container-ship-gridlock

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