March 3, 2020 – The container shipping industry is facing up to acute shortages of boxes at ports in Europe and North America, a situation that could worsen in the coming weeks. Data from Hamburg-based Container xChange shows that, thanks to the coronavirus and record numbers of blanked sailings, storage yards at Chinese terminals are overflowing with steel boxes, while equipment is running down at major ports elsewhere. Despite clear signs that Chinese ports are getting busier for a variety of commodities, the number of boxes waiting to be offloaded at Chinese ports continues to climb, according to data published yesterday. We continue to urge our customers to advise us of your forecasted bookings as soon as possible so that space can be secured.