{"id":858,"date":"2017-07-28T16:50:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T16:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/en\/?p=556"},"modified":"2021-12-31T17:28:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:28:31","slug":"the-boc-blast-202-frustrated-shippers-say-theres-no-end-in-sight-to-barge-congestion-at-ports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/the-boc-blast-202-frustrated-shippers-say-theres-no-end-in-sight-to-barge-congestion-at-ports\/","title":{"rendered":"The BOC Blast 202 – Frustrated shippers say there's no end in sight to barge congestion at ports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nFrustrated shippers say there’s no end in sight to barge congestion at ports<\/b>
\nBy Alexander Whiteman, 27\/07\/2017<\/i>
\nhttps:\/\/theloadstar.co.uk\/frustrated-shippers-say-theres-no-end-sight-barge-congestion-ports\/<\/a><\/i>
\nShippers say they feel powerless over the barge congestion crisis in northern Europe \u2013 one believing there may be no early solution.
\nStanley Black & Decker\u2019s senior transportation manager for EMEA-ANZ, David Lenaers, told The Loadstar congestion at Antwerp had been a problem since last year.
\n\u201cAlthough things may have seen a slight improvement over the last month, delays persist,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cFurthermore, it seems there is no immediate solution in sight \u2013 with shippers being left out of the discussion and nobody willing to talk to, or represent, us.\u201d
\nDutch barge operator Contargo last week claimed barges were waiting up to five days for container loading and unloading, which had led to the imposition of a \u20ac19.50 container surcharge.
\nMr Lenaers said delays of five to seven days had become increasingly frequent, with peak periods seeing even more severe congestion.
\nHe said whenever he tried to speak to the inland terminals about the delays, they had directed him to the ocean carriers, who pointed him back to the inland terminals and port authorities.
\n\u201cThey continue to blame each other, but our biggest concern remains the lack of alternatives. We have no other option but road, and this has its own problems,\u201d he continued.
\n\u201cThe roads in Belgium already suffer from heavy congestion and by using trucks we too would be creating bottlenecks at the port of Antwerp, not to mention the costs involved.\u201d
\nTool supplier Stanley Black & Decker has its main warehouse in Tessenderlo, between Antwerp and Liege, approximately 5-6km by road from the BCTN-operated Meerhout inland terminal on the Albert Canal.
\n\u201cVarious factors make using the canal the quickest form of transport. We have the goods delivered to Meerhout and then truck them the last few kilometres,\u201d Mr Lenaers said. \u201cIf we were to truck them the whole way, it would become a 50km trip, which not only delays delivery but is also prohibitively expensive.
\n\u201cFor urgent deliveries, we have had to do this, and it remains a possibility in future cases where cargo cannot come by barge, but this is not sustainable in the long term.\u201d
\nAnother shipper also told The Loadstar the barge congestion had been problematic.
\nMr Lenaers said there were no other ways for shippers to offset its impact, nor could they find a direct correlation between the delays and loss of sales.
\nPort of Antwerp said it was \u201cwell aware\u201d of barge delays, claiming this was down to several factors, including a shortage of dock labour and capacity as a result of the rising volumes of shipping.
\nOne inland terminal operator told The Loadstar congestion in Antwerp had turned into a \u201creal disaster\u201d.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frustrated shippers say there’s no end in sight to barge congestion at ports By Alexander Whiteman, 27\/07\/2017 https:\/\/theloadstar.co.uk\/frustrated-shippers-say-theres-no-end-sight-barge-congestion-ports\/ Shippers say they feel powerless over the barge congestion crisis in northern Europe \u2013 one believing there may be no early solution. Stanley Black & Decker\u2019s senior transportation manager for EMEA-ANZ, David Lenaers, told The Loadstar congestion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-boc-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2079,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}