Strong growth contributed to Shanghai congestion in April

Nearly double-digit growth at Shanghai combined with weather issues to generate congestion in April.

Container throughput at the main ports in China’s Yangtze River Delta rose by 9 percent year over year in April, fueling congestion and delays at Shanghai’s Yangshan deep-sea port.

New figures from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange show the world’s busiest container port handled 3.27 million TEU in April, a rise of 5 percent on April last year. Neighboring Ningbo- Zhoushan took in more than 2 million containers in the same month, a year-over-year rise of nearly 17 percent.

Both facilities had seen double-digit, year-over-year growth in March.

The strong showing may reflect some additional business due to the resetting of the alliances, but is more likely a sign of the good trade performance by the overall economy over the past months.

Throughput at China’s top eight container ports grew by close to 6 percent in April, taking total volumes in the first five months to 51.23 million TEU, 6.2 percent up on the same period in 2016.