The international blockade caused by the container ship Ever Given, chartered by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Line and bound for Rotterdam, has highlighted the fragility that can occur in a globalized world, already evidenced recently with the COVID-19 crisis. It has been seen how a setback can stop everything and have millionaire consequences. Beyond the collapse in international maritime traffic it has caused, there have been other collateral damages, such as the rise in oil prices, also increasing the cost of trade.
Although traffic in the Suez Canal has already begun to resume, after the efforts to refloat the Ever Given, there is still much to resolve this crisis. Not only because of the investigation that will have to be carried out to determine the causes of the accident, but also because of all the ships that have been trapped along the way or those that have diverted their route. Obviously, there will be an impact on the operations of ports like Barcelona, but it is still too early to quantify it.
The president of the Port of Barcelona, Mercè Conesa, explains that there have not yet been any effects, but that, of course, there will be. Aware of the tensions that can arise once international traffic is fully reactivated, Conesa emphasizes that they are working to avoid adding more delays when ships arrive at the enclave, strengthening management and teams. "We are preparing to prevent terminals from becoming a bottleneck. These days the bottleneck has been the Suez Canal, but now what can happen is that the ports become one because the terminals cannot operate as quickly as necessary," she explains.
Conesa points out that the terminals of the Port of Barcelona will have to reschedule the work they had planned for when the ships finally arrive, in addition to organizing more frequent calls, accumulating delays and those that were originally scheduled. "The most important thing is that, when all the ships arrive, we have all the operations ready so that the merchandise flows very quickly through the terminals," she argues. Another issue that may affect them will be the lack of containers, taking into account that they are reused once they arrive and this will depend on the resumption of international traffic. "Everything is delayed," she stresses.
The first impact on the Port of Barcelona will be this Saturday
Until now, ships that have arrived in Barcelona coming from the Suez Canal in recent days have been able to do so because they had crossed it before the accident. The route from this commercial artery to the Catalan capital takes approximately between six and eight days. That is, there is still time to start noticing the effects of the jam.
The first consequence of the obstruction of the Suez Canal in the Port of Barcelona will be seen this Saturday, when the first ship affected by the stoppage does not arrive in the Catalan capital. Coincidentally, this vessel, which is in the southern part of the canal, operates for Evergreen Line. In total, the port estimates that, as of today, there are about 11 ships destined for Barcelona affected by the incident.
The delay that these ships finally end up having will depend on different factors. Right now, shipping companies are deciding which is the best option to manage the situation: either wait or change route, going around the Cape of Good Hope. This deviation means adding between 10 and 12 more days of travel to reach Barcelona and increasing costs. Companies coming from Southeast Asia have already opted to avoid the Suez Canal and go around Africa, according to the president of the Port of Barcelona. It will also affect if the maximum allowed flow in the Suez Canal is increased, which is usually 50 ships a day at most. The possibility of increasing capacity to 100 is being considered, a decision that could considerably reduce the time to pass the queue of 400 vessels that are currently waiting.
Currently, the Port of Barcelona receives weekly between 35 and 40 calls from container ships, seven of which correspond to regular container shipping services connecting Asia and the Mediterranean, transiting through the Suez Canal. These are services with the Far East, the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Pakistan, or Southeast Asia, which take between 25 and 35 days to complete the entire route. Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), CMA-CGM, Ocean Network Express (ONE), and Evergreen Line are some of the shipping companies that transport containers to the Catalan capital and will be affected. To these ships must be added oil tankers and gas transport ships, which usually pass through the Suez Canal from the Arabian Sea area towards the Mediterranean.