At present, many Asian ports are facing a serious shortage of containers. Most of the containers are stranded in destination ports in Europe and the United States, making it difficult to return as soon as possible. In the limited number of return containers, new problems have emerged.
South Korea’s Busan Port Authority (BPA) recently stated that empty containers returned to the port from overseas have not been cleaned and inspected as they should .
In response, local truck drivers complained that the shipping company neglected the inspection, cleaning and maintenance of the containers, and instead shifted the responsibility of maintaining the containers to them.
It is understood that from November 16 to 24 this year, BPA collected 30,792 samples of empty containers from 9 container terminals in Busan Port for inspection. The results showed that the condition of 52% of empty containers is not ideal .
BPA stated that many containers need to be cleaned again . In addition, insects such as cockroaches and spiders were also found in some containers .
More importantly, 59% of all return empty containers have defects . The defect rate of empty containers returned to the port by Korean domestic importers was 47.2%.
"This is because the shipping company did not conduct proper inspections before shipping containers to Busan Port." BPA said.
It is understood that since 2018, with the assistance of local fisheries departments, animal and plant quarantine agencies and customs, BPA has been paying close attention to the cleaning and damage of containers and conducting related investigations.
Investigations have shown that in many cases, the exterior or interior of the container is obviously damaged, and garbage is deposited. About 1.2% of containers had to be replaced because they could not be repaired.
At present, the shortage of containers in the Asian market is still severe, while more and more containers are stranded in American ports.
Major US ports, including the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, have generally experienced equipment shortages and extended loading and unloading times. Coupled with the serious container imbalance problem in Pacific trade, a large number of imported containers are backlogged in American ports, causing terminal congestion, container turnover, and cargo transportation.
This situation has intensified, making the local port "close to complete paralysis."
Although shipping companies are also trying various ways to seek various solutions to speed up the dispatch of empty containers, according to Maersk’s estimation, many countries around the world are experiencing national blockades due to the second outbreak of the epidemic, and the shortage of empty containers is expected to remain Will continue.
