Several major ports are collectively experiencing congestion, with pre-holiday trucking fees and container drop fees rising several times over.

    With the approach of the Spring Festival, China’s major foreign trade ports are entering the most challenging operational peak of the year. Recently, key ports including Shanghai, Ningbo, as well as Yantian, Shekou, and Nansha in South China have collectively fallen into congestion, with yards overflowing, gate appointment slots extremely scarce, and shipping companies overbooking leading to frequent container drop-offs. Trucking fees and container delivery charges continue to rise, significantly increasing the difficulty of pre-holiday shipments. Industry insiders generally describe the state of port operations before this year’s Spring Festival as: 'Freight rates see no increase, but the ports are congested first.'

    Shanghai Port’s Waigaoqiao area has become a severely affected zone, with more than 4,000 heavy containers backlogged. The port enforces a strict appointment system, no entry without a slot, truck fees have risen approximately 80% compared to normal, the probability of container drop-offs is about 22%, and the overbooking ratio by shipping companies is 25%. Ningbo Port is operating in a clearly overloaded state. Beiyi Container Terminal and Meishan Terminal have storage rates close to 95%, enforce port entry by appointment, and stop accepting containers if a single vessel exceeds 20% of its allocation, resulting in whole-vessel container drop-offs. Container delivery fees have risen to 1,500–2,000 yuan per container, truck fees have risen about 80%, the likelihood of container drop-offs is about 30%, and shipping companies’ overbooking ratio is 30%. Yantian Port’s storage for heavy containers is basically saturated, with around 1,500 return container slots emptying within an hour daily, truck fees have surged from about 1,800 yuan per container to 5,000–5,500 yuan per container, the probability of container drop-offs is about 40%, and shipping companies’ overbooking ratio is 60%.

    Industry experts believe that concentrated pre-holiday shipments, overbooking by shipping companies (with some routes exceeding the port capacity by 40%–60%), and limited trucking capacity are the main causes of the current congestion. The time from factory to loading has now extended from 5–7 days to 10–14 days. Cargo owners need to plan their shipment schedules in advance to guard against container drop-offs and related cost risks.

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