Importers face a three-week wait before they can book container space on ships operating from northern Europe to Malta as major shipping lines have cut back on capacity, The Times has learnt.
The situation has been described as “a disaster” by a spokesman for Carmelo Caruana Shipping, agents for French shipping line CMA-CGM.
“At the moment there is no option because all lines are full and ports in northern Europe are congested,” he said, adding the French company’s head office informed them that new orders could only be taken in three weeks’ time.
The spokesman said the problem of under-capacity was normally felt on the Far East-Mediterranean route, especially in the period that coincided with the Chinese New Year.
“Importers are worried because this phenomenon has rarely occurred on the northern Europe-Mediterranean route and even we are struggling to understand because it is very strange,” he said.
Trying to give an explanation, he noted that over the past two years major container lines had been operating at overcapacity on the Mediterranean route from Europe “and they lost billions”.
To make up for the losses, shipping lines may have shifted capacity to other routes but with demand picking up in Europe this has now caused the problems importers are facing today.
However, such was the complex world of shipping, the spokesman said, that routes changed from month to month and the situation could eventually change.
Malta is serviced by various shipping lines but CMA-CGM, the world’s third largest container line, uses Malta Freeport as its hub and also sells slots on its ships to other shipping lines.
Some shipping agents are concerned because, over the past two months, CMA-CGM stopped selling slots to other lines. “This means importers have to directly use CMA-CGM, restricting their choice of shipping line,” an agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, while noting that such changes were part and parcel of the industry.
Paul Bannon, from Embassy Freight Services Northern Ltd, a UK freight forwarder that services Maltese clients, blamed the present problems on what he described as CMA-CGM’s monopoly in Malta.
He said the 30-year lease given to the French shipping line by the government to operate the Freeport, “more or less blocked other lines coming to Malta”.
With CMA-CGM ships also serving China, Mr Bannon believes a recent agreement with MSC shipping to share slots on the Far East service has reduced the capacity for Malta.
CMA-CGM’s agent in Malta shrugged off the label that the French company enjoyed a monopoly in Malta. “CMA uses Malta as a hub and so it offers the most services but other major lines operate from northern Europe to Malta,” he said.
The spokesman confirmed though that over the past two months a lot of “slot-swapping” was happening between shipping lines.
“There is less capacity on the sea between north Europe and the Mediterranean but this holds true for all the major lines,” the spokesman said, adding he could not find space on other lines to arrange an urgent delivery of cargo for a company client.
Cargo can still make it to Malta using a number of transhipment points in different ports but an agent said this increased the risk of delays and also depended on the nature of the cargo.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com