Asian Port Congestion Has Swallowed 3 Million TEU of Capacity, and the Contract Books Are Starting to Break

Sea-Intelligence estimates that 8.5 percent of the global containership fleet, roughly 3 million TEU of capacity, is currently absorbed by port delays, the Danish analyst calculated in the week of September 28. That is more capacity than all but four carriers operate, sitting at anchor instead of carrying boxes. What makes this more than a rerun of every congestion headline since 2021 is where the strain is showing: in the contract books themselves. Hapag-Lloyd has cut guaranteed-capacity allocations under its Quality Freight Product contract by as much as 40 percent for some forwarders, The Loadstar reported on September 24, and that is the moment congestion stops being a rate story and bec…