Port Congestion a Growing Problem

Posted : 08/30/13 4:25 PM

Port congestion can be compared to the sort of stop and go conditions which take place when too many cars crowd onto one expanse of road. Everyone’s time is wasted. The same thing occurs with boats in ports which are congested. They need to fall into line and watch for a spot to open where they could dock and unload their cargo. Ports have more limits than highways, however, when it comes to congestion. They can-not simply expand to accommodate more boats more cars can be handled by the way highways. Creating more docking space is not going to help if the crews and the cranes that use them usually do not also improve at the same rate. The bottleneck may lie in inadequate access roads or rail lines to move cargo in and out of the port. Lack of warehouse space rarely appears to be the issue, but numerous other infrastructure shortfalls may be concerned. Port congestion could be temporary in nature in case a calamity of some form has affected the port’s normal operation. Storms and other weather events can damage until repairs are finished the facilities that will impede cargo handling. Industrial accidents and fires may also play a role. There might also become a surprising upsurge in imports or exports that bring about ship traffic to suddenly mushroom. Structural congestion is the perennial problem that comes from the growth in global trade. Many ports just lack the infrastructure to manage the increasing number of traffic they are being asked to bear. The difficulty can be compounded if the administrative staff is likewise with a lack of numbers to handle freight issues. There are different varieties of taxation to be levied, and security concerns, environmental restrictions. All of this demands extensive trained employees to handle, and falls under the class of Customs. To help ease congestion, ports around the world are quickly being expanded. New breakwaters are now being constructed. Dredging is permitting boats with deeper drafts to berth. More container cranes are coming on the web. Dock and New terminals are now being developed. Transit lines to and from ports are now being upgraded to accommodate more trucks and rail cars. All that is still not enough, therefore new ports are now being built from scratch. China has several underway, as does Columbia. Both of these states are working in tandem simply because they ship enormous amounts of materials to one another. Columbia is trying to become an access point for a lot of South America’s exports to China along with other Asian destinations.