Port Congestion to Get Worse as Shipping Ops Normalise: Lars Jensen

Co-moderator of the Future of Logistics Conference Part II and TLME Chairman Joe Beydoun drew the panellists’ attention to current geo-political tensions that have led to high fuel prices in parts of the world like the US and asked them how can logistics companies there successfully compete with other parts of the world? And what did the future look like?

Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime said that the different parts of the supply chain operate on very different timelines. Speaking from the sea transport perspective Mr Jensen said it is relatively easy and quick for shipping lines to change their trade lanes and add more capacity for particular routes within weeks. However, for ports to add infrastructure to deal with the extra cargo that the ships are bringing in, can take years.

Thus, even as the industry widens the entry points of the supply chain pipeline it is not paying enough attention on how the exit points of the pipeline, i.e. the ports, are dealing with the extra amounts of cargo being brought in by the ships.

“This is what is causing immense congestion problems today”, said Mr Jensen.

Looking ahead Mr Jensen said that the industry is “not realising what’s coming in 6 to 12 months’ time.”

As the shipping lines start to operationally normalise and move their cargoes faster, the ports are going to face an even greater challenge of dealing with these cargoes than they are today. And he did not see anybody in the industry preparing to deal with this upcoming challenge, Mr Jensen concluded.

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