Container now takes 4 months to travel Asia-Europe!

Container cargo now takes an average of 123 days to make the journey from Asian exporter to European importer, and that is a new record, says American freight forwarder Flexport, who closely monitors the duration of container transports via its Ocean Timeliness Indicator (OTI).

Just under three years ago, June 2019, the same journey only took 45 days, but since the corona pandemic, the duration has increased almost continuously. With the past week, measured until April 10, as a new low.

The OTI measures transports arranged by Flexport from the moment the container load is at the exporter’s exit (‘Cargo Ready Date’) until the freight is available at the port of arrival to be delivered to the importer. According to Flexport, the new record is mainly a result of increased delays in Asian ports earlier this year.