# 1.7 Million TEU Shortage: Port Congestion Consuming Capacity Like a Major Shipping Line **Category:** Operational Alerts | **Source:** Frachtportal Redaktion | **Published:** 2026-08-27 | **Updated:** 2026-09-12 **Tags:** Hafen, Hafenstau, Seefracht, Container, TEU, Schiffskapazität, Frachtraten, Hamburg, Evergreen, Sea-Intelligence, Alphaliner, Fahrplan, Logistik News, Transport News, Fracht News, Speditions News, Supply Chain News, Zoll News, Frachtportal News, LKW Transport, Schienentransport, Digitalisierung, Nachhaltigkeit > Delayed vessels are tying up approximately 1.7 million TEU of capacity worldwide. Despite the addition of many new ships, this creates tight capacity constraints, delays, and downward pressure on freight rates. --- Actually, there are more container ships worldwide all the time. Nevertheless, capacity is lacking in daily operations. At first, this sounds somewhat odd, but it is easy to explain. Sea-Intelligence calculates that approximately 5% of global deep-sea container ship capacity is currently tied up due to delays. This corresponds to roughly 1.7 million TEU. The ships have not disappeared and are not empty. They are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. A ship waits in front of a port, stays longer at the terminal, or arrives five days late in Rotterdam, Hamburg, or Asia. As a result, the next voyage also starts later. And then the one after that. A small delay quickly becomes a delay that extends across the entire schedule. Of course, such delays were normal in the past. Between 2011 and 2019, approximately 2.2% of capacity was tied up on average. Today it is around 5%. The actual additional loss compared to earlier is thus approximately 1 million TEU. For comparison: The total 1.7 million TEU would correspond to a shipping company fleet that would be even larger than Evergreen. Hamburg clearly demonstrates how this can occur. Evergreen ships were sometimes berthed there in July for 137 to 187 hours. That is between 5.7 and 7.8 days. Other shipping companies sometimes got away much faster. One reason is also the ever-larger ships. When a megamax ship brings not 2,000 or 3,000 but suddenly 7,000 or even more containers for a port, the terminal, cranes, rail, barge, and truck services must also be able to handle this volume. This is likely where the bottleneck increasingly lies. For the market, this means: New ships alone do not solve the capacity problem. If ports and hinterland cannot keep up, the additional capacity simply remains idle longer. --- For us, it's especially important not to look only at the theoretical transit time. When a schedule says Hamburg–Shanghai 40 days, that doesn't help us much if the ship is already four days late arriving in Hamburg. That's why we should currently plan for some additional buffer. For important shipments, don't book the last possible departure. Don't calculate connections too tightly for transshipment shipments, and if possible check alternative ports or other services. Shippers also shouldn't assume that additional new buildings automatically lead to lower freight rates. As long as part of the fleet is stuck in congestion and delays, the actual available capacity remains smaller. Shipping lines and ports can counteract this by better distributing port calls, planning schedules more realistically, and better aligning terminal, rail, barge, and truck capacities with increasingly larger vessels. However, you can't completely eliminate the problem. For disposition planning, this currently means simply: don't blindly believe the ETA, check the port situation, and for time-critical cargo, build in a few extra days as a buffer. In short: there isn't really a shortage of 1.7 million TEU of vessels. The ships are there – they're just losing too much time. --- Approximately 5.0% of global deep-sea container ship capacity is currently tied up due to delays. This corresponds to a total of approximately 1.7 million TEU. Between 2011 and 2019, the normal value was approximately 2.2%. Compared to this normal value, an additional approximately 2.8 percentage points, or about 1.0 million TEU, are currently tied up. According to Sea-Intelligence, schedule reliability currently stands at only approximately 60 to 65%. Delayed vessels arrive on average approximately 5 to 5.5 days late. Before the pandemic, it was typically 3 to 4 days. A fleet with 1.7 million TEU would be larger than today's Evergreen fleet. Evergreen vessels were berthed in Hamburg for between 137 and 187 hours at the dock in July. Alphaliner sees not only weather problems but also increasingly larger ship loads per port call as a burden for terminals. ## Related Entities ### Countries - [Germany](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/land/de) ### Seaports - [Hamburg (DE HAM)](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/seaports/hamburg-port-de-ham) ### Glossary - [Container](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/container) - [Freight rate](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/freight-rate) - [Freight Rate](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/freight-rate-2) - [Port](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/port) - [Shipping company](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/shipping-company) - [Sea freight](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/sea-freight) - [Terminal](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/terminal) - [Goods](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/goods) - [At-Sea Port Operations](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/at-sea-port-operations) - [Sea freight](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/sea-freight-2) - [Sea Freight Liability](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/sea-freight-liability) - [Demurrage](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/demurrage-2) - [Detention](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/detention-2) - [berth](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/berth) - [container ship](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/container-ship) - [Port demurrage](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/port-demurrage) - [Port detention](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/port-detention) - [PSC Detention](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/psc-detention) - [Demurrage Accrual](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/demurrage-accrual) - [TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit)](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/glossary/teu-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit) --- *Canonical URL: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/news/17-millionen-teu-fehlen-hafenstaus-fressen-kapazitaet-wie-eine-grossreederei-20260825084709](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/news/17-millionen-teu-fehlen-hafenstaus-fressen-kapazitaet-wie-eine-grossreederei-20260825084709)* *Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/news/en/17-millionen-teu-fehlen-hafenstaus-fressen-kapazitaet-wie-eine-grossreederei-20260825084709](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/news/en/17-millionen-teu-fehlen-hafenstaus-fressen-kapazitaet-wie-eine-grossreederei-20260825084709)*